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GUSTAVUS AD0LPHU8 II. 



HISTOKY OF THE 
LIFE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 



THE HERO-GENERAL OF 
THE REFORMATION. 



By HARRIET EARHAKT MONROE, 

Author of ''The Art of Conversation," "Heroine 

OF the Mining Camp," "Historical Lutheranism," 

"Washington — Its Sights and Insights." 



PHILADELPHIA ! - 
THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 



0^ 



>':Va 



Copyright, 1910, by 
The Lutheran Publication Society. 



iC1.A*/739:j7 



PREFACE. 

In giving this sketch of the hfe of Gustavus 
Adolphus, no attempt has been made to present a 
complete life of the great king. 

It is a history difficult for young people to un- 
derstand, and for that reason only the leading 
events of a most eventful life have been presented. 

It was first written for a lecture and entertain- 
ment, after the manner of my other entertain- 
ments on Church epochs, to be illustrated by 
stereopticon views, with three dramatic interludes 
— the first representing the joy of the Swedish 
people on Gustavus coming to the throne ; the 
second showing Gustavus taking leave of his Par- 
liament and friends as he is about to embark on 
the Thirty Years' War ; the third, an act called 
' ' The Women who Loved Him. ' ' The evening 
was to open and close with church processionals 
in the native peasant costumes of Sweden and 
other Protestant countries of Europe. 

It has been deemed best to present the story in 
book form, which will differ somewhat from the 
original lecture and dramatic representations, for 
the reason that pictures do away with the neces- 
sity for many words. 

With the earnest prayer that this history may 
stir other heroic souls to stand for God in life's 
difficult places this sketch is submitted. 
(3) 



Iblstor^ ot tbe Xtfe of (Bustavus BOolpbus Ifff, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 
Family of Gustavus Vasa 7 



CHAPTER II. 

Childhood and Youth of Gustavus Adolphus .... 12 

CHAPTER III. 
Gustavus as a Man 17 

CHAPTER IV. 

Gustavus and His Kingdom 21 

CHAPTER V. 

The Character of the King and His Times 28 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Thu-ty Years' War 36 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Thirty Years' War— Continued 44 



VI CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Conditions in Sweden 53 



CHAPTER IX. 
Gustavus in Germany 61 

CHAPTER X. 
Gustavus in Germany — Continued 84 

CHAPTER XI. 

Gustavus in Germany — Concluded 98 

CHAPTER XII. 
End of a Valuable Life ." . . 115 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Later History of the Thirty Years' War 132 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 



CHAPTER I. 

FAMILY. 

GusTAvus Adolphus, the hero general of the 
Reformation, was born at the royal palace at 
Stockholm, Sweden, December 9th, 1594, a little 
more than one hundred years after the birth of 
Luther, nearly fifty years after his death, and five 
years before the birth of Cromwell. 

Washington and Lincoln, as to date of birth, 
were only seventy-seven years apart ; had Wash- 
ington lived but nine years more, they would have 
been contemporary. 

Washington may, in a sense, be said to have 
made this country, and Lincoln to have preserved 
it a united people. Just so Luther brought about 
the movement known as Protestantism, but it was 
given to this great king of Sweden, known as the 
Lion of the North, to preserve Protestantism from 
extinction on the continent of Europe, even as a 
little later it was given Cromwell to stop that cur- 
ious movement toward Romanism which is even 
yet the puzzle of the historian. 

Gustavus II. was the son of Charles, Duke of 
Sudermania, youngest son of Gustavus Vasa, who 
may be considered the founder of the Vasa family. 
(7) 



8 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

During the entire sixteenth century Sweden was 
torn by external wars and internal dissensions. 
Sweden, by the contract of Calmar, in 1397, had 
become a dependency of Denmark. A trade 
among rulers had made a brave people the re- 
luctant subjects of an alien power. Gustavus 
Vasa conceived the project of freeing his country 
from Denmark. He made one ineffectual attempt, 
and after severe defeat, pursued by the oppressors, 
he fled to Delecarlia, whose citizens rallied about 
him, and, with the help of these sturdy and valiant 
mountaineers, the Danes were expelled from 
Sweden and his country was restored to liberty. 

His grateful countrymen elected him king. 
Gustavus Vasa saw the moral degradation of his 
land, and brought disciples of Luther to the 
country to instruct in both religious and secular 
learning. Among the most distinguished of these 
was Olaiis Petri. Of course, the hierarchy of 
Rome and priests of Sweden made great opposi- 
tion to any change. 

Gustavus Vasa reduced the gospel to this simple 
message, which a child could understand, viz.: 
' ' To serve God according to His law ; to love God 
above all ; to believe in Jesus Christ as our only 
Saviour ; to study and to teach earnestly the word 
of God ; to love our neighbor as ourselves ; to 
observe the ten commandments." He distinctly 
said that the Scriptures speak neither of tapers, 
nor palms, nor of masses for the dead, nor of the 
worship of saints, but that the Word of God, in 
many places, prohibited these things. He added, 
"The sacrament of the Lord's Supper has been 
given to vis as a token of the forgiveness of sin, 



FAMILY. y 

and not to be carried around in a gold or silver 
frame to cemeteries and other places. ' ' 

Now, was not that a clear statement for a youth 
brought up a Catholic, whose thought heretofore 
had seemed only of war ? 

As in England, politics had a hand in expelling 
the old form of religion and bringing in the new, 
so it had an influence in Sweden. 

Geijer, the great church historian of Sweden, 
says that the Roman Church at that time possessed 
two-thirds of the soil, and that the wickedness of 
the church was as great as its possessions. Like 
Henry VIII. of England, Gustavus Vasa needed 
the lands to enrich the crown and to secure the 
friendship of the nobles. He deeply hated priests 
because they were unionists, that is, they desired 
to keep the three Scandinavian countries under one 
crown, which would have left Gustavus crownless. 

When dying, this great king wrote as his last 
message : ' ' Rather die a hundred times than 
abandon the gospel." He pointed the way to 
glory for Sweden for generations yet unborn. 

Eric, the son and successor of Gustavus I. , seems 
to have inherited the barbarous nature of some far- 
back ancestor. He indulged in dangerous and mur- 
derous folly. He proposed at the same time for the 
hand of Elizabeth, Queen of England, Mary 
Stuart, Queen of Scotland, Princess Renee, of 
Loraine, and Christina, of Hessen, and after all 
that, married a peasant woman. 

At last he was declared incapable and was im- 
prisoned. This shortened his life. His children 
were excluded by law from the succession, and 
his brother John ascended the throne. 



10 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

John had married Catherine Jagellon, daughter 
of Sigismund, king of Poland. She influenced 
her husband to admit the Jesuits to Sweden, and 
he made an effort to restore the Romish Church. 

When the Swedes were converted to the Protes- 
tant faith it seems to have been a deep work of 
grace. They did not fluctuate in their faith. So 
now they withdrew their love and friendship from 
their king, whom they considered false to the faith 
he had promised to sustain. 

At the death of John the states determined that 
their rights should not be invaded, so they forced 
from his son, Sigismund, a decree prohibiting 
any religion in Sweden except the Lutheran. 
Sigismund (who had become a Catholic to secure 
the throne of Poland) signed this decree with 
great bitterness of heart. 

In spite of this decree, which he had evidently 
signed with mental reservations, he ordered a 
Catholic church to be built in each town in his 
kingdom. He further enraged his subjects by re- 
fusing to be crowned by a Protestant prelate, and 
accepted coronation at the hands of the Pope's 
nuncio. He surrounded himself by the nobles of 
Poland and the priests of Rome. These foreigners 
could scarcely appear on the streets without caus- 
ing quarrels and bloody encounters. 

In the midst of these disturbances he was re- 
called to Poland, of which he was also king, his 
father having secured his election by bribery, and 
he left Sweden never to return as a welcome king. 

Duke Charles, youngest son of Gustavus Vasa, 
and uncle to Sigismund, was the only son of Gus- 
tavus Vasa who showed himself worthy of the 



FAMILY. 11 

noble inheritance to which he had been born. 
The troubles of the time, the dangers to Protest- 
antism, caused him to listen to the loud call of 
the Estates to act as regent, or ruling king to this 
much distressed land. 

The Augsburg Confession was again proclaimed, 
and all the Swedes present cried: "Our persons 
and our property, and all that we have in this 
world will be sacrificed, if it is necessary, rather 
than abandon the gospel." Diet after Diet ap- 
proved of the administration of Duke Charles. 

Four years after the departure of Sigismund he 
returned with five thousand troops of Poland to 
reclaim his crown. He was defeated, but the 
Swedes agreed to take him (because by heredity he 
had a just claim to the crown) as king if he would 
send away his foreign troops and properly admin- 
ister the Lutheran form of religion. 

But in a year he proved so unfaithful that he 
was deposed and sent back to Poland. His claim 
to the throne led to long-continued hostility be- 
tween Poland and Sweden. On account of the 
claim of the Swedish Vasas and the Polish Vasas, 
brave men were to die, homes were to be deso- 
lated, and both lands were to have weeping widows 
and fatherless children for half a centur3^ 

In 1604 Charles was crowned king, the crown 
entailed to the eldest son, being Protestant, under 
a law that declared that any ruler who deviated 
from the Augsburg Confession should by that act 
lose his crown. 

The heirs of Sigismund were by law forever ex- 
cluded from the throne, and it was decreed that 
the king should forever make his home in Sweden. 



CHAPTER II. 

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF GUSTAYUS ADOLPHUS. 

During the stormy scenes described in the 
preceding chapter, Gustavus Adolphus was 
born. He was baptized on the 1st of Januar}^, 
1595. 

The child was brought up in an atmosphere of 
war. His father told him the story of Sweden's 
wars and of his own campaigns, to which the boy 
listened with enrapt attention. 

In 1595 the Diet had closed the throne to every 
Catholic candidate. Charles IX. , as the king was 
now called, was generous enough to assure the 
Estates that if any son of Sigismund should be- 
come a Protestant he should inherit the throne. 
He also made this reservation in his will, showing 
that he had the conscience of a Christian who de- 
sires to do justice, while Sigismund, as king of 
Poland, never failed to act on the principle that 
the end justifies the means. 

The Finns, urged to rebellion by the king of 
Poland, proved to be troublesome subjects to King 
Charles. They submitted to his rule only after 
a bloody contest. The king took Gustavus, who 
was barely seven years old, with him on an expe- 
dition against the Finns. The ship became ice- 
bound and had to be abandoned. The child and 
his father continued their way on foot in the 
(12) 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 13 

midst of the severities of a Russian winter. The 
exposure seems to have done them no harm. 

On one occasion his father took him to visit 
the fleet at Calmar, and on being asked by an offi- 
cer which vessel he preferred, he answered, '' The 
' Black Knight, ' because it has the most guns. ' ' 

The generosity for which he was so noted in 
later years began to show itself in his childhood. 
A peasant had brought him a handsome little 
pony from the island of Oeland. The good man 
said, " I want you to accept the pony as a gift ; 
as a sign of my love and devotion to you. ' ' The 
young prince replied, "I am glad to have the 
horse, but I will pay you for it, as the gift would 
exceed your resources. ' ' The child gave the man 
all the money in his purse. The peasant was 
amazed at the amount of the money and at the 
child's great liberality. 

His father, foreseeing that Gustavus would need 
to command people of different nationalities, saw 
that he had instruction in many languages, so 
that at the age of seventeen he spoke fluently 
the Swedish, Latin, German, Dutch, French and 
Italian languages, and could make himself under- 
stood in Russian and Polish. He afterward became 
proficient in Greek. 

Special attention was given to the development 
of a symmetrical character, and everything possible 
was done to make him love the Lutheran faith. 

The tendencies of both father and son are well 
illustrated by a letter, still extant, from King 
Charles to his son, as his farewell advice : "Above 
all fear God, honor thy father and mother, show 
for thy brothers and sisters a deep attachment ; 



14 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

loye the faithful servants of thy father and re- 
ward each one according to his merits. Be 
humane towards thy subjects, punish the wicked, 
love the good ; trust everybody, though not 
unreservedly ; observe the law without re'spect to 
person ; injure no one's well-acquired privileges, 
if they are consistent with the law. ' ' 

Character molded on such principles as these 
would certainly touch the sublimities. 

The mother of Gustavus Adolphus was a Ger- 
man princess of superior education for the times. 
A haughty queen, a strict disciplinarian, thereby 
developing in her son a quick and ready obedience 
to the laws of the family. Who would command 
must first learn to obey. 

She much preferred her second son, Charles 
Philip, and, had Gustavus been less generous, or 
less noble, an unnatural jealousy might have 
divided the brothers, but the young Duke of Fin- 
land, as Gustavus was called, acted as though he 
thought his mother could do no wrong. 

Gustavus had three teachers, each of whom left 
a strong impression upon his character — John 
Skytte, a man who had spent ten years in travel. 
Von Morner, an accomplished, traveled man, and 
Count de la Gardie, a Swedish noble of a French 
family, who instructed Gustavus in fencing and in 
military tactics. 

Gustavus had an attractive personality and won 
the abiding affection of his cousin, Duke John, the 
only one of Sigismund'.s sons who took the Swedish 
side of the religious and family quarrel. Duke John 
married the only sister of Gustavus, Mary Eliza- 
beth, and proved a brother, indeed, after the death 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 15 

of King Charles. For the choice was left to the 
people and to the Estates as to whether they pre- 
ferred John or Gustavus. At the sincere urgency 
of Duke John the young Duke of Finland, Gus- 
tavus, was chosen. 

King Charles IX. began early to train his son 
in public affairs. When Gustavus was only ten 
years old his father kept him at his side at all 
cabinet meetings and in great public assemblies. 
He encouraged him to talk to officers from foreign 
countries in their own language. The king per- 
mitted him to ask questions on war, special bat- 
tles and methods of governing, and the. father was 
proud of the eager, precocious child, in whom he 
recognized a mental and spiritual power far be- 
yond his own. 

At the age of fourteen he was sent, with his 
mother, through northern Sweden, in order that 
he might become acquainted with the people of his 
own country. The king said, ' ' You are only a 
boy, but listen to everyone who solicits your pro- 
tection, help everyone according to your means, 
and dismiss no one without a word of comfort. ' ' 

The gracious boy made many friends in this 
early journey, men who afterwards gladly gave life 
itself to forward his interests. 

At the age of fifteen he was greatly disappointed 
because he was not permitted to lead an army 
against the Russians, but for once his father re- 
quired him to remain at home to learn affairs con- 
cerning the internal and external policy of the 
Swedish government. But in 1611, at the age of 
seventeen, when Denmark had declared war 
against Sweden, he was permitted to command a 



16 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

body of troops. He was sent to deliver the town 
of Calmar which was besieged by the Danes. He 
was afterward joined by troops under Duke John 
and the king himself. On August 16th, 1611, 
the town and castle were surrendered by a com- 
mander who proved to be a renegade Swede whom 
King Charles had offended. 

The king left the war in order to return to 
Stockholm to preside at the Diet. On his jour- 
ney he was taken violently ill. When it was 
plain he could not recover Gustavus was sent 
for. The king gave the sorrowing boy his parting 
blessing, then laying his hand on the bowed 
young head, he said, in a voice full of conviction, 
'' Hie faciet "—''This one will do it." 



CHAPTER III. 

GUSTAVUS AS A MAN. 

Gustavus, the Grand Duke of Finland and 
Duke of Estland, as he was now called, did not at 
once assume the throne. The kingdom was for 
two months without a ruler. 

The Diet was convened at Nykoping by the 
queen and by Duke John, who, with six lords of 
the Council, had administered the affairs of the 
government. On December 17th, 1611, the queen 
and Duke John, who was five years the elder, re- 
nounced before each of the assembled Estates 
all right and title to the throne of Sweden, and, 
although the age of twenty-four was considered 
the legal majority, Gustavus, though only eigh- 
teen, was declared of legal age, and the reigns of 
government were placed in his young hands. 

He took the title of his father : ' ' Elected king 
and hereditary Prince of the Swedes, Goths and 
Vandals." He chose for his chancellor, or Secre- 
tary of State, the wisest man of his realm. Axel 
Oxenstiern, only ten years older than himself. 

Sweden had seen little of peace for fifty years. 
From the days of Gustavus I. endless war had 
prevailed. In the civil strife between rival 
branches of the same house, two kings had been 
overthrown. Gustavus inherited a blood-sprinkled 
throne, and, could he have foreseen it, was to 
2 (17) 



18 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

be in almost perpetual warfare during his entire 
life. 

To him came early the great passion which has 
made bad people good, and quite as often made 
good people bad. From early boyhood he had 
loved a girl, who became a handsome court lady, 
called Ebba Brahe. Her family were of the no- 
bility, though not royal. It was from early youth 
his purpose to share his throne with the woman of 
his choice. 

At Skokloster, Sweden, is preserved a fragment 
of their correspondence, including some most 
ardent letters from the young king. When he 
could not write to her, he sent the "forget-me- 
not ' ' flower, which the girlish heart interpreted 
aright. He exhibited the symptoms of other 
lovers in writing sonnets to her, and at alh times in 
seeking her society. 

But his mother. Queen Christina, was a politi- 
cian, and steadily set before him that it was his 
duty to strengthen his kingdom by marrying into 
a royal family which would become his friend in 
peace and his ally in war. On one occasion, 
when he was about leaving on a military cam- 
paign, the queen mother forced from him the 
promise that he would not write to Lady Ebba for 
two years. To this he agreed on the condition that, 
at the end of two years, all objection to their 
marriage would be withdrawn. 

He had scarcely reached the seat of war until 
the old queen forced Ebba Brahe into a marriage 
with James de la Gardia, a polished noble gentle- 
man, but not the choice of her young heart. 

All through his life the heart of Gustavus 



GUSTAVUS AS A MAN. 19 

turned with unutterable longing to the love of his 
youth. This is shown in several letters to his 
friend, Chancellor Oxenstiern. 

We would like to believe that, at least up to 
his marriage, he remained the ideal lover, but 
truth compels us to say that he had a natural 
son, Gustav Gustavson, born in 1616, to a Dutch 
lady. 

That was an age in which morality along sexual 
lines w^as unusual among royal men, but this one 
instance of immorality is the single instance that 
even the w^orst enemy of . Gustavus can bring 
against his good name. 

On November 28th, 1620, in the great palace of 
Stockholm, Gustaviis was married to Eleanor 
Marie of Brandenburg. The marriage was one of 
great pomp, and Gustavus recognized his duty to 
the state by marrying into a strong Protestant 
royal family, and he also recognized his duty as a 
Christian to be a true husband and a good man. 

The young queen brought a large dower which 
greatly assisted the war fund, but the marriage 
precipitated another w^ar with Poland. 

The marriage was a fairly happy one, as royal 
marriages go, but the happiness of the family was 
clouded by a dead child being the first born of 
the union. This great affliction Gustavus seems 
to have borne with a truly Christian spirit. The 
following year a similar event occurred, so that 
the royal family feared for the succession. At 
last, in 1632, after being married twelve years, he 
was permitted to hold a living child in his arms. 

As he lavished upon her his paternal caresses, 
he said, " God be praised ! I hope this daughter 



20 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

may be as good to me as a son. May God who 
has given her preserve her to me." 

The hfe of this princess, whose history will be 
given later, proved that what we pray too earnestly 
for, almost as it were forcing the hand of God, may 
be given in answer to persistent requests, but 
the gift is to our undoing. Like Hezekiah's pro- 
longed life, the boon was given in answer to 
prayer. Hezekiah's^ continued life proved to be 
full of anguish, and Manasseh, one of the curses 
of Judah, was born to him. If only we could 
pray : " O Lord, withhold, if not for my perma- 
nent good and Thy ultimate glory." 

No woman ever dishonored her parentage more 
than this daughter, known in history as Queen 
Christina of Sweden. 

This short history is to deal so much with 
the history of Gustavus Adolphus, the hero gen- 
eral of the Reformation, that we have condensed, 
for the most part, the history of his loves and 
domestic life into this one chapter. Before leav- 
ing the subject, we would remind you that Queen 
Eleanor Marie always acted as regent when Gus- 
tavus was absent on his campaigns. She seems 
to have ruled wisely. After the death of Gustavus 
she generously sent a portrait of the man they 
both loved so much to Lady de la Gardia. 




CHRISTINA, 
Daughter of Gustavus Adolphus If, 



CHAPTER IV. 

GUSTAVUS AND HIS KINGDOM. 

We have now these two young men, Gustavus 
Adolphus and Axel Oxenstiern, his chancellor, 
sitting down to play the game of war against all 
the powers of northern Europe. The stake was 
the national existence of Sweden. 

Buckle thinks that, given the time, the man 
may be predicated. But the times did not pro- 
duce Jesus Christ. Nero was the natural product 
of that period. Gustavus Adolphus, like Luther, 
was a special soul sent of God to be the incarna- 
tion of spiritual force against the evil and awful 
indifference of a corrupt age. 

First, he enlarged the place of his generous 
cousin, Duke John, who doubtless had foreseen 
the great period of war before them, and gladly 
had placed the responsibility in the abler hands of 
Gustavus. 

Then the young king pursued the war with 
Denmark until the King of Denmark renounced 
his claim to the Swedish crown. It took him two 
years to secure this concession. During these two 
years he enlarged the rights of his people, stirred 
the patriotism of the peasantry, won the affections 
of the nobility of Sweden, and unified his people 
into a strong nationality. When Gustavus Vasa 
introduced the doctrines of the Reformation into 
(21) 



22 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

Sweden the inhabitants were a rude people, but 
fifty years of instruction on the part of the clergy 
and independent thinking on the part of the peo- 
ple had greatly changed this state of affairs. 

The revival of learning and the Reformation 
which caused an active study of theology and 
literature, had greatly pushed forward the intel- 
lectual standing of Germany. Lutheranism has 
alwaj^s been a scholarly faith ; it was born in uni- 
versities, and never took on the severities or icon- 
oclasms of Calvinism. 

Sweden now kept all that was brilliant, attract- 
ive and energizing in the ideas of the Reformation, 
and gave to the Lutheran faith a new impetus, so 
that in the time of Gustavus Adolphus the aris- 
tocracy of Sweden were among the most cultivated 
people of all Europe. 

As in Scotland the Reformation changed the 
very nature of the entire nation, so now it did the 
same for Sweden, with this difference, that the 
Scots followed the doctrines of Calvin, which 
stripped religion of its sestheticism and made it 
severe and to some degree forbidding, while the 
Lutheranism of the Swedes beautified their lives, 
stirred their sesthetic taste and improved their in- 
tellects, so that from that day to this Sweden has 
been regarded as a scholarly country, and has 
produced its fair share of literary and scientific 
men and women, beside many great inventors, 
and artists of world-wide renown. 

The personality of Gustavus had much to do 
with his success. He had a fine physique. In 
his youth he was of slender figure, pale, fair com- 
plexioned, long-shaped face, fair hair, with a 



GUSTAVUS AND HIS KINGDOM. 23 

touch of red in it, and a tawny, pointed beard. 
Every inch of his fine, tall body was trained by 
the judicious use of athletics and. out-door exer- 
cise. He radiated health, which of itself made 
him magnetic. 

His tinge of red showed the impetuosity of his 
nature, which often had to be restrained by the 
great Chancellor Oxenstiern. ''If my heat did 
not put a little life into your coldness we should 
all freeze up," said the king on one occasion. The 
chancellor replied, ' ' If my coldness did not assuage 
your majesty's heat, we should all burn up," 
whereat the king laughed and acknowledged that 
his temper was rather quick and his patience less 
than he would like. 

No sketch of the great king and of his success 
would be complete without understanding his two 
chief advisers. Queen Elizabeth once heard that 
a courtier had said, ' ' It is not the queen who is 
great, but her counsellors." The queen replied, 
' ' Well, who made them counsellors ? ' ' Gustavus 
had the quality of appreciating greatness in others, 
of supplementing his own talents with theirs, and 
of not being jealous. 

Axel Oxenstiern was born at Fano, in Upland, 
June 16th, 1583. His family traced their lineage 
back to the thirteenth century, and had intermar- 
ried with both the Danish and Swedish royal fam- 
ilies. His father died in 1597, and he was sent by 
his judicious mother to a German university. This 
gave him Swedish and German as colloquial 
tongues, and he became so proficient in Latin that 
he could use it equally well with either. 

Latin had for many centuries been the language 



24 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

of the learned, in which people of different lands 
could converse intelligibly. The people of Europe 
needed no Esperanto while they were proficient in 
Latin. 

Oxenstiern studied theology as thoroughly as if 
he expected to enter the ministry. Religion was 
the absorbing thought of good people during the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was re- 
called to Sweden by Charles IX. , who recognized 
his great ability, and sent him on several diplo- 
matic missions. At the age of twenty-six he was 
made house guardian of the royal children, and 
the head of the regency, which, in case of the 
king' s death, might cause him to be called to gov- 
ern the realm during the minority of the heir- 
apparent. 

Among the first acts of the young king was to 
appoint Oxenstiern chancellor. From this time 
during the entire life of the king, this great man 
became one of the chief factors in ruling Sweden. 
He was a true friend, never failing to restrain or 
reprove the impetuous, strong-minded, strong- 
natured boy-king. Oxenstiern was a man of 
action, and was as little given to ' ' lying around 
among the shavings " as Gustavus himself. 

But the king had another counsellor of a totally 
different type, and that was John Skytte, a fine 
scholar and a great traveler, who had acted first as 
the tutor of Gustavus ; and later became a coun- 
sellor. The king made him a senator, and in 1629 
made him governor-general of Livonia. 

It is very amusing to read some of the letters 
which passed between the governor and his king 
at this time. The governor apologizes for certain 



GUSTAVUS AND HIS KINGDOM. 25 

things not being accomplished, Gustavus calls him 
a man of theories, and declares, ' ' I expect results 
and not explanations." 

Returning now to the direct history of Gustavus 
Adolphus, in July, 1621, Sigismund having denied 
even the title of king to Gustavus, and having sent 
strenuous threats of punishment to the Elector of 
Brandenburg for permitting his sister to marry 
him, Gustavus sailed from Elfsnabb Harbor with 
one hundred and fifty sail, manned by fourteen 
thousand soldiers, for the purpose of conquering 
Livonia. At Pernau he was joined by General 
de la Gardia with five thousand Finns. 

In August, Riga was surrounded, and on Sep- 
tember 15th, it surrendered to the Swedish forces. 
In October, Mittau, the capital of Courtland, was 
entered, and the season being too far advanced, 
the army went into winter quarters. After an 
eight years' bloody campaign Gustavus, with his 
brave army and his experienced generals, con- 
quered Sigismund, the unrelenting enemy of the 
Swedish Vasas. 

The war between the two branches of the house 
of Vasa extends from 1600 to 1660. Gustavus felt 
that in his war with Poland, from 1621 to 1629, 
he was not fighting for his crown alone, but that 
he was facing the great struggle of Protestantism 
against the Catholic reaction. This war really 
should be regarded as part of the Thirty Years' 
War. 

Queen Eleanor, as the wife of Gustavus was 
now called, suffered much during this war, for she 
felt that Sigismund' s attitude to the Elector of 
Brandenburg for permitting her marriage to her 



26 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

greatly-beloved husband had much to do with the 
awful sorrows of the time. The queen went sev- 
eral times to see the king while he was absent, 
always carrying with her money, food and rein- 
forcements. On one occasion she came suddenly 
upon him, clasping him in her arms, exclaiming : 
' ' Now, Gustavus the Great, thou art my prisoner. ' ' 

Gustavus took pains to assure her that the war 
was now far beyond the question of their mar- 
riage, or even his title to the throne. He made 
plain to her that Sigismund, a Koman Catholic 
prince, who had the Pope for master, the Haps- 
burgs for allies, the Jesuits for advisers, should not 
and could not be permitted, even though it cost 
much in blood and money, to set up any claim to 
the throne of a Lutheran country. 

In our own land it was the small Indian wars 
which trained our ancestors to be the nation of 
warriors who successfully fought England in the 
Revolution. So Gustavus Adolphus, his great 
generals and his brave troops, had training in 
small wars for that part of the Thirty Years' War 
which was to make him the most prominent figure 
of his century. 

Besides the wars with Denmark and with Poland, 
he also had a short campaign (in which he took 
several Prussian towns) with Brandenburg, the 
vassal and ally of Poland, although, like Sweden, 
a Lutheran country, so he had really the prac- 
tical experience of three wars before entering that 
which gives him and his country their place in 
history. 

The life of Gustavus was now even more pre- 
cious to his subjects than at his coronation, be- 



GUSTAVUS AND HIS KINGDOM. 27 

cause his brother, Duke Charles Phihp, had died 
childless, January 25th, 1622. 

He was a youth of great promise and of lovely 
spirit. On one occasion, when he was ill, he wrote 
home : " My brother is so attentive and takes so 
much pains to entertain me that I almost forget 
my 'illness.'" The death of this prince was a 
severe stroke to the Dowager Queen Christina, who 
had always loved him more than she had loved 
her gifted elder son. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CHARACTER OF THE KING AND OF HIS TIMES. 

Under the stress of war, trial and great expo- 
sure of his Hfe, the piety of Gustavus Adolphus 
became more marked. On his long campaigns he 
read and studied the Bible. He said : "I seek to 
fortify myself by meditations upon the Holy 
Scriptures." No one ever studied God's word, 
that is able to make us wise unto salvation, with- 
out also gaining worldly wisdom, and perceptibly 
increasing in moral beauty of character. 

He regarded his high position as a great trust, 
given to him by his God. He was not actuated 
by a love of conquest, but felt that the defence of 
his throne and of his country also meant the pro- 
tection of the Protestant faith. He waged war to 
bring about peace. 

He repressed all acts of vengeance among his 
soldiers, he tolerated no licentiousness, and up- 
held religion and good morals in the camps of his 
army. Divine service was held morning and even- 
ing, at which time the king and the whole army 
knelt before God, asking His blessing and guidance. 

He was a strict disciplinarian, but banished the 
bastinado, w^hich not only punished but degraded 
men. He took counsel with his generals, and 
made no important move without consulting the 
Estates of his kingdom. 

(28) 



THE CHARACTER OF THE KING AND OF HIS TIMES. 29 

His ph^^sical strength was very great. Once 
when ordered to bed for fever by his physician, in 
the Russian campaign, he went to fencing with 
one of his officers. This caused such profuse 
perspiration that his disease was cured. 

God seemed to visibty protect his hf e, even as we 
think He did the hfe of General Washington. 
During the campaign against Poland, a bullet 
struck the place that he had just left. At another 
time his garments were spattered with blood from 
men who fell at his side. Again, a bullet went 
through his tent just above his head. 

At Dantzig seven boats were to take a redoubt. 
Gustavus commanded one of them and was shot 
in the abdomen. He wrote the Estates : "The 
engagement was a warm one, and I was wounded, 
but not unto death. I hope in a few days to 
resume my command. ' ' 

His recklessness in danger greatly distressed 
his friends, and they sent Oxenstiern to ask him 
not to expose his life again in battle. Gustavus 
answered : "As yet no king has lost his life by a 
bullet, moreover, the soldier follows the example 
of his leader, and a general who shrinks from dan- 
ger will never cover himself with glory. Caesar 
was always to be found in the front rank, and 
Alexander moistened each battlefield with his 
blood." 

He was wounded three months later in a battle 
in Prussia against his brother-in-law, the Duke of 
Brandenburg. On this occasion he wrote home : 
' ' We met the enemy on foot and horseback, and 
our artillery made such execution that we thought 
we had put him to flight, but God would not have 



30 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

it. When we were about to dislodge him, a mus- 
ket ball struck me at the shoulder near the neck, 
and was the chief cause of our losing the battle. 
I thank God in my misfortune for the hope of 
speedy restoration to health." 

Now the officers of his army remonstrated, 
through Oxenstiern, and entreated him not to ex- 
pose his person, calling his attention to the impor- 
tance of his life to his country. He replied : 
' ' My friends, I cannot believe my life is so essen- 
tial as you seem to think, for should the worst 
befall me, I am fully convinced that God would 
watch over Sweden as He has done hitherto. As 
God has made me king, I dare not permit myself 
to be frightened or to be actuated to my own ad- 
vantage. Should, in the vicissitudes of war, 
death be my lot, how can a king fall more honor- 
ably than in the contest for God and His people ? " 

Even the surgeon rated him soundly for expos- 
ing his life. He replied : ' ' Ne sutor crepidam ! ' ' 
' ' Everyone to his trade. ' ' 

During the war with Poland, Austria sent 
against the Swedish an army of eight thousand in- 
fantry and two thousand cavalry, under the famous 
Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland. Gustavus asked 
him what motive actuated Austria to meddle be- 
tween two foreign countries. Wallenstein inso- 
lently answered, "The emperor, my master, has 
more soldiers than he wants for himself, he must 
help his friends. ' ' 

Gustavus meant to take Spelter, in Marienburg, 
which he had conquered from the Prussians. One 
of his generals was prematurely attacked by the 
Imperial forces, and his division seemed near de- 



THE CHARACTER OF THE KIiS'G AND OF HIS TIMES. 31 

struction, when Gustavus hastenea to his assist- 
ance. In the midst of rout and loss, he was in 
danger of being made a prisoner by one of the 
enemy's cavalry. His hat was knocked off and 
a sword grazed his head. On the other side he 
was seized by the arm, when a Swedish dragoon 
killed his assailants, and led the king's horse to 
another part of the field. 

Gustavus was deeply grateful to God for sparing 
his life, and more than once said in substance : 
" God has given me a crown, not to dread or rest, 
but to devote my life to His glory and to the hap- 
piness of my subjects." 

Wherever he went he expelled the Jesuits, and 
required the governors of the conquered countries 
to restore to the Protestants the places of worship 
which the Catholics had taken from them. He 
•admonished the Protestant clergy to preach the 
plain gospel, to administer the communion, using 
both bread and wine, and he insisted that the 
clergy should see that the people led honest, 
godly lives, consistent with the. faith they pro- 
fessed. 

He provided that a synod should meet each 
year to consult as to church affairs, in order to 
provide common schools for the people, and also 
for the higher education of the youth of the 
country. 

The following great principles, showing that 
Sweden w^as in advance of other nations in secur- 
ing the rights of the citizen, and limiting the 
rights of the crown, were incorporated in the 
king's oath, and placed on the statute books. No 
one should be apprehended or condemned upon a 



32 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

mere assertion, or without knowing his accuser 
and being brought face to face with him in a 
fair trial. 

No man was to be degraded from office without 
a fair trial. The land's law provided that, with- 
out the consent of the people, neither a law should 
be made, nor a tax imposed, without the consent 
of the council and of the Estates. It took the com- 
bined authority of Duke John (during his life), 
of the council and of the Estates, to endorse the 
wish of the king to make war, peace, a truce or an 
alliance with a foreign nation. Think how this 
law safeguarded the rights of the people in a cen- 
tury when great absolutism prevailed. 

Under Gustavus the council w^as reinstated in 
its position as mediator between king and people, 
as the Estates deprecated their being burdened 
with too frequent Diets or Congresses. 

The oath taken by Gustavus had eliminated 
that part which forbade the king to alienate or 
diminish the property of the crown. One of 
the first things Gustavus did was to sell the gold 
and silver plate and all the jewels of the royal 
family he could obtain. Many of the nobility did 
the same to provide money for his wars. 

The winters of Sweden are long, and the roads 
at that time were bad, and, of course, no railroads 
existed, so that it was no wonder the people of 
the realm disliked being frequently convened, 
aside from the great expense of such convocations. 
Among the demands of the nobility at the acces- 
sion of Gustavus was that, before each Diet, they 
should be made acquainted, with the great matters 
to be discussed, in order that they might consider 



THE CHARACTER OF THE KING AND OF HIS TIMES. 33 

them at leisure and without influence from others, 
also that they might hold neighborhood con- 
claves and come to decisions, so that all need not 
attend the Diet. 

Afterward the presence of military officers at 
the Diet was ascribed to Gustavus Adolphus. 

In 1664 the knights and nobles, long after the 
death of the king, say, " Among other benefits of 
his reign, he gave us the deputies of the army for 
our assistance, who, without votes of their own, 
have stood so that, in conjunction with the coun- 
cillors of state, we have been able to balance the 
other orders." 

Axel Oxenstiern remarks : ' ' The presence of the 
military, though having no votes, strengthened the 
nobility at the Diets where every nobleman, come 
to lawful years, was bound to give attendance." 

The spirit of militarism pervaded all Sweden 
at that time. The writers of the period speak dis- 
paragingly of ' ' old lords reared away from war 
in easy lives, who are no soldiers, and have in 
their councils only a heap of economists and liter- 
ates." With such a spirit among the people, and 
with a king w^ho felt called of God to stop the ex- 
termination of Protestants, was it any wonder, 
with the deck cleared for action, and the wars for 
his crown ended, that both he and his people 
should feel called to study, not local, but European 
conditions, and to inquire, ' ' What is our duty in 
the premises ? ' ' 

While the thoughts and plans of Gustavus were 
ripening for action in Germany, for a few short 
months he devoted himself to the business of his 
kingdom. 
3 



34 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

In 1627 the king organized a company for work 
in America.* He sent a small fleet to the West 
Indies. He encouraged emigration to a New 
Sweden, which extended from the mouth of the 
Delaware to Trenton, New Jersey. 

In 1624 the Swedish West India Company had 
been formed, with the hope of enriching Sweden 
and lessening local taxation. 

In 1638 two Swedish vessels entered Delaware 
Bay and founded New Sweden. They built a fort 
nt what is now Wilmington, Delaware. The most 
interesting relics yet remaining of that company 
are the Old Swedes Church, in Wilmington, Dela- 
ware, and the Gloria Dei Church, in Philadelphia, 
in the southern section of the city. They consti- 
tute lasting memorials of the great Swedish king. 
Unfortunately these two famous historical build- 
ings have passed out of the possession of the 
Lutheran Church. The Swedes had small colonies 
and strong churches from the mouth of the Dela- 
ware to Trenton, New Jersey. New Sweden ex- 
isted under that name for seventeen years, when it 
was incorporated in the William Penn posses- 
sions. 

The Swedes lost their language in America, but 
kept their sturdy Christianity. Their fair deal- 
ings with the Indians prepared the way for Will- 
iam Penn to have the name of founding a colony 
in peace, for which the Swedes should receive 
much of the credit. 

Gustavus also devoted himself to the improve- 
ment of Stockholm, now one of the most beauti- 

*See Bryant's History of the United States, Vol. I., page 469. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE KING AND OF HIS TIMES. 35 

ful cities of the world. It is often called the 
Venice of the North, being situated on a group of 
nine islands, connected by picturesque bridges. 
Its streets are wider than those of Venice, and the 
canals have none of the vile odors of the southern 
city. 

Sweden has been called Sweden ever since peo- 
ple inhabited its territory. At different periods it 
has been united to Norway and Denmark, under 
the same ruler. It has never been invaded or 
conquered, or had its boundaries changed by a 
foreign power. 



CHAPTER VI. 



From the time of the abdication of Charles V. 
of Germany the country had, for about sixty 
years, enjoyed comparative peace. Luther's trans- 
lation of the complete Bible had appeared in 1634. 
Nearly one hundred years had been given the 
plain people to study the word of God, to see 
what Christ said and what Paul preached, and to 
compare them with the doctrines of the Church 
as set forth by the priests of Rome. 

The work of Luther was destructive as well as 
constructive. He tore down what was false in the 
worship of God. The greater part of the con- 
structive work of his life was formulated in the 
Augsburg Confession. 

The Diet of Augsburg met in the city of Augs- 
burg in 1530. It consisted of leading divines of 
both Protestant and Catholic faith, and of the 
princes who upheld the Reformation. 

The Protestants set before the emperor, Charles 
v., on June 25th, 1530, their doctrines in a re- 
markable document known as the Augsburg Con- 
fession, or the Augustana. It is the plain state: 
ment of the doctrines of the Lutheran Church the 
world over, and is the basis from which all other 
Protestant confessions are largely taken. 

Then followed twenty-five years of the successful 
(36) 



37 

propagation of the doctrines of the Reformation, 
and the purified faith was accepted not only in 
Germany, but in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, 
Switzerland, the Netherlands and in England and 
Scotland. 

The Council of Trent, the eighteenth Ecumen- 
ical Council of Rome, met near the time of Luther's 
death. If it had been called in 1520, when 
Luther entreated for the calling of an Ecumenical 
Council to correct the abuses existing in the Church, 
it is quite possible that Luther would not have 
come out of the Church of Rome. If King George 
III. of England had yielded, even in part, to the 
prayer of the colonists, what is now the United 
States would probably have remained a colony of 
Great Britain. 

The Council of Trent remained in somewhat 
interrupted session for over eighteen years. It was 
called with some idea of coming to some under- 
standing with the Protestants, and of bringing 
them back into the Cathohc Church. The Prot- 
estants paid little or no attention to the call, and 
the Council contented itself with reforming some 
of the abuses within the Church, and reformulating 
the doctrines of Rome. 

The reform party at the Council of Trent de- 
manded ' ' wine as well as bread in the sacrament 
for the laity, schools for the poor, church hymns, 
preaching and Communion in the language of the 
people, a better catechism, reform in convents 
(some of which were mere houses of immorality), 
and the right to marry for the priests." The 
papal power called this rank heresy, and the entire 
council from beginning to end was a disgraceful 



38 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

spectacle. A few subordinate improvements on 
church disciphne were granted, but no important 
reformation of church affairs, and the farce ended 
by an exultant proclamation calling down curses 
on the heretics. 

From that day to this it has been Trent versus 
Augsburg. These two great councils were the most 
important events of the mediaeval period. It is 
quite possible that the common people did not un- 
derstand the bearing of the new religious thought, 
but the great statesmen of Europe saw that what 
is now called the Dark Ages had passed forever. 

' ' The Protestants, ' ' says Eanke, ' ' guided by 
the Scriptures, retraced their "steps with ever- 
increasing firmness toward the primitive forms of 
faith and life. The Catholics, on the contrary, 
confronted with unflinching opposition and re- 
pelled with determined hostility whatever could 
recall the idea of Evangelical doctrines." 

At the beginning the Thirty Years' War may be 
called a religious quarrel, but it soon became for 
the house of Hapsburg a scramble for personal 
aggrandizement. Ferdinand II. fought for terri- 
tory, power and money, and he hoped, by recover- 
ing all the property which had belonged to the 
Catholic Church before the Reformation, he would 
attain these three objects.^ He followed this idea, 
although the formal edict was not announced for 
several years. It was his intention to break down 
all princes, both Catholic and Protestant, of the 
smaller German States, to incorporate Denmark, 
Holland and Italy (the old dream of Charles V. ) 
into one great empire, and thus restore the old 
German-Roman Empire. It was a fine opportunity 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 39 

for self-aggrandizement under the guise of fighting 
for his church. 

It was not to the interest of France to have the 
house of Hapsburg further aggrandized. God used 
this jealousy and ambition to further the work of 
the Reformation, so that France, through Cardinal 
Richelieu, became the ally of Gustavus Adolphus, 
and furnished a monthly stipend for paying Prot- 
estant soldiers, but even more valuable to the cause 
was the information and advice of this great Cath- 
olic ally. It was now believed that Richelieu * 
even hoped for a confederacy of the smaller Ger- 
man States and free cities under the protectorate 
of France. 

Reviewing for a moment the past, we shall re- 
member that Charles V. was succeeded by his 
brother, Ferdinand I., who reigned from 1556 to 
1564. Maximilian II. , his son, was lenient to the 
Protestants, and ruled from 1564 to 1576. It was 
during his reign, in 1572, the St. Bartholomew 
massacre occurred in Paris, in which Catherine de 
Medicis and her son, Charles IX., caused the 
murder of over fifty thousand Huguenots, as the 
Protestants were called in France. The massacre 
continued three days and nights. 

Pope Gregory XIII., on hearing the news, 
openly expressed his joy at "the glorious event," 
caused public thanksgiving to be made, and had a 
coin struck in commemoration of this vile sin. 
This event gave warning to the Protestants that 
Rome would take advantage of whatever oppor- 
tunity offered to destroy Protestantism. 

* See Cambridge Modern History, Vol. IV. 



40 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

During the great war Rudolph II. ruled Ger- 
many from 1576 to 1612, Mathias from 1612 to 
1619, followed now by Ferdinand II. Louis XIII. , 
the creature of his minister, Cardinal Richelieu, 
who, though a churchman, always put the State 
before the Church, was the ruler of France. He 
was followed by Louis XIV. , whose mother. Queen 
Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin ruled till 
the majority of Louis XIV. The kings of Eng- 
land were James I. , from 1603 to 1625, and Charles 
I., from 1625 to 1649. The Popes were Paul V., 
Gregory XV., Urban VIII. and Innocent X. 

The Catholics now formed a strong league. The 
Protestants already had a weak union. 

Mathias, during a reign of seven years, had 
favored the Catholics, and caused Ferdinand, one 
of the most cruel Catholics who ever lived, to be 
elected king of Hungary and Bohemia. 

The election of Ferdinand was a great blow to 
Bohemia, and the new king lost no time in trying 
to destroy all the Protestants in his kingdom. 
Protestants were persecuted as criminals, and when 
they appealed to the law of the land, the Jesuits 
replied that Ferdinand's election as king of Bo- 
hemia canceled all laws in favor of Protestants. 
' ' Novus rex, nova lex. ' ' This they declared was 
what was meant by the Eeservatum Ecclesiasticum in 
the Augsburg Treaty of Peace. The clause stipu- 
lated that the people of each State should follow 
the religion of the ruler of the State. It is true 
the clause was there, but modified by two things : 

1st. Cities were excepted. 

2d. The Evangelical princes had not agreed to 
the clause and had protested against it. 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 41 

Ferdinand's action as king, of course, made an 
insurrection. How could it fail to do so ? 

The Emperor Mathias became frightened and 
fled to Vienna, after appointing a regency of four 
Catholics and three Protestants. The Protestant 
regents sent a petition to the Emperor, and the 
Catholic regents at the same time sent a report. 
Mathias ordered the implicit and instant obedience 
of the Protestants. 

While the seven regents were assembled in an 
upper room in the palace at Prague to announce 
the Emperor's decision. Count Thurn, chief of the 
Protestant party, entered the room with a company 
of armed men. He demanded of each Catholic 
regent, ' ' Did you advise the Emperor' s arbitrary 
reply ? ' ' Two of them answered evasively, the 
other two said, "Yes, we did." At this point the 
four Catholic regents were seized and pitched out 
of the windows from the third story. They fell on 
a great heap of barnyard manure and were not 
killed. But by this the Protestants took the re- 
sponsibility of saying, " By this act we pitch out 
of our lives the Pope of Rome, the King of Bo- 
hemia and the Emperor of Germany. ' ' 

The Emperor was in feeble health and desired 
to make peace, but Ferdinand dissuaded him, and 
sent an army against these Protectants. The army 
was driven by Count Thurn and his men to the 
very gates of Vienna, and were only there turned 
back by the regular army of Austria. 

The winter was coming, and no provision hav- 
ing been made for the Protestant army, the force 
returned to Prague. 

This was to the Thirty Years' War what the 



42 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

firing on Fort Sumter was in the Civil War, or the 
skirmish at Lexington to the Revolutionary War. 

Just after this Mathias died and Ferdinand, 
king of Bohemia, became Ferdinand II., Emperor 
of Germany. He, with his Jesuits, determined 
to retake all propert}^ which before the Reforma- 
tion belonged to the Catholic Church. 

In many places all the people had become 
Protestants, and the church having been built by 
the money of either themselves or their ancestors, 
the churches had been used for nearly one hundred 
years for Protestant services. Americans can 
understand the situation by thinking how it would 
be and what would happen if England should 
now demand that all property owned by the 
Crown before the Revolutionary War should be 
restored. 

Ferdinand II. was now to force a war upon his 
subjects which left Europe a great cemetery. 
During the Thirty Years' War the population of 
Europe was reduced from sixteen millions to less 
than six million people. Thirty-five thousand 
towns and villages were destroyed. 

Three-fourths of the population perished in 
Bohemia, partly by the sword, but also by pesti- 
lence and famine, and many emigrated. The ques- 
tion had resolved itself into this, " Shall we permit 
Protestantism to be forever exterminated ? " It 
took all this sorrow of destruction of property and 
of human life to bring about political toleration 
between Protestant and Catholic States. 

For thirty-three years Germany seems to have 
been blind to what was going on around her. The 
intellectual impetus given by the Reformation 



THE THIRTY YEAEs' WAR. 43 

made the theological strife between Lutherans and 
Calvinists bitter and absorbing. 

Large districts both south and west of them had 
been forced back under the dominion of the Church 
of Rome, and the Germans did not interfere. 
They had done but little for the Dutch in their 
desperate fight against the Spanish Hapsburgs 
and Romanism, so that William of Orange, in bit- 
terness of heart, had said, "If Germany remains 
an idle spectator of our tragedy, a war will pres- 
ently be kindled on German soil which will swal- 
low up all the wars which have gone before it. ' ' 
That war was now on. 

" No, true freedom is to share 
All the chains our brothers wear, 
And with heart and hand to be 
Earnest to make others free." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. CONTINUED. 

This war is usually divided into five periods : 
1. War in Bohemia ; 2. War in the Palatinate ; 
3. Danish war ; 4. Swedish war ; 5. Franco- 
Swedish war. 

After their king had been made Emperor of 
Germany, the Bohemians, in an effort to make 
sure of their deliverance from the rule of Ferdi- 
nand, chose for their king Frederick V., Elector 
Palatine, who being the head of the Evangelical 
Union, was considered the chief of the Reforma- 
tion party in Germany. 

He was elected August 26th, 1619. He was 
not fortunate in securing the friendship and sup- 
port of his own subjects. His conduct was so 
unbecoming his profession that it was no wonder 
God did not prosper him as a public leader. 
Frederick V. was son-in-law of James I. of England, 
and it was hoped by his election to secure the favor 
of the Protestants of England and Scotland. 

The Emperor Ferdinand II. now placed Maxi- 
milian of Germany and the ferocious General 
Tilly at the head of the army of the Catholic 
League, to attack the city of Prague. 

On November 8th, 1620, the armies met at 
White Mountain, near the city, and the Protestant 
army, composed of Germans, Hungarians and 
(44) 



NETHEiElIiANDS AND BELGIUM. 



SCALE OF MILES 



10 30 60 










'Ologne" -.- 



^ 



Jl_ 



I Scbawnburg LIppe. 
3 Lippe-Detmold. 

3 AnbalL 

4 Schwarzburg-Sonder- 

hauseii. 

5 WalJccli. 

MohcQzollern. 
7.Saze Cobur;;-Gotha. 
8 " Meiiil.igen. 
» " Wcin.ar. 
10 " AlUinburg. 

II P.euss-GreitE. 






t^e*^ SlrauXiug ' 







(sruBe 
«uttgarh,«^ 



■«-''C« 



13 



DlU. 




ide M East from 93 'Washington '^ '* 



THE THIRTY YEARs' WAR. 45 

Bohemians, lacking first of all a good leader, but 
also lacking unity in action, courage and good- 
will, were defeated in less than an hour by the 
superior numbers of the Imperial army. 

Frederick, their king, was dining at leisure at 
Prague, while his army was being sacrificed. He 
availed himself of the short armistice of eight 
hours granted him by the Duke of Bavaria, to 
make a flight by night, in such haste that even his 
crown was left behind him. 

The battle of White Mountain settled the mat- 
ter so far as Bohemia was concerned, and Prague 
surrendered the next day. The Estates did the 
same homage as had been done by Silesia and 
Moravia, but the Emperor had another matter to 
settle with Prague. Tilly, with seven thousand 
men, principally Spaniards, entered the city. 
Twenty-seven Protestant chiefs were instantly ex- 
ecuted, others were less publicly killed, and many 
more imprisoned or punished. 

All the Protestant churches were confiscated and 
handed over to the Jesuits, who now came back 
in full force. The soldiers drove the country peo- 
ple into the mass, so that a baron of Oppersheim 
gloried in having converted, without a sermon, 
more people than the Apostle Peter, who through 
his Pentecostal sermon, had seen three thousand 
souls converted. 

The Emperor, with his own hands, tore up the 
Letter of Majesty by which the Emperor Rudolph 
had granted religious liberty to the Bohemians. 

Thirty thousand families left Bohemia during 
the next two years, and Maximilian was made 
Elector Palatine, in place of Frederick V. 



46 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

This is a very abbreviated history of the first 
division of that great war which laid low the coun- 
try of John Huss. 

The second period may be said to extend from 
1621 to 1624, and is usually spoken of as the war 
in the Palatinate. The war was now carried into 
that portion of Germany. It was in vain that 
each Protestant prince determined to defend his 
possessions against the oppressor. Tilly van- 
quished them one after another till Ferdinand's 
scepter was over every State. The Imperial sol- 
diers ranged over the country, taking everything 
of value, also appropriating to Rome every Protes- 
tant church and school, so that the Protestants 
could readily see that their extermination had 
been determined. Ferdinand had taken a vow 
to the Virgin, both at Loretto and at Rome, 
to enforce her worship at the peril of his life, de- 
claring that he preferred to rule over a wilderness 
rather than a nation of heretics. Now, strength- 
ened by his many successes, it was plain to all 
Germany that he meant to soon fulfill that wicked 
vow. The executions and massacres of that time 
were without parallel since the Christian era. 

Ferdinand not only revenged himself on all 
Protestants, but he deeply humbled the Catholic 
princes by the exercise of despotic power over 
their people. All European statesmen became 
alarmed at the aggrandizement, as they called it, 
of the Hapsburgs. Richelieu, the great cardinal 
of France, was glad enough to see Protestantism 
punished, as he had no idea of letting Austria 
overshadow France. Holland was afraid for 
Protestantism within her own borders, the slow 



THE THIRTY YEARs' WAR. 47 

nature of James I. of England began to arouse 
itself, and he planned to reinstate his son-in-law, 
Frederick, in the Palatinate, when broken and op- 
pressed Germany turned to the princes of Scandi- 
navia for succor. 

Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, was busy 
with his wars in Poland. He would gladly have 
sent part of his well-disciplined army to the assist- 
ance of the German princes, but they preferred 
the king of Denmark, Christian IV., brother-in- 
law to the Elector Palatine. 

He began the third period of the war by enter- 
ing into an alliance with England and Holland, 
and declaring war against the empire, marched to 
the help of the Protestant princes, Dukes of 
Brunswick, Mansfield and others. 

Christian IV. took the field in March, 1625, 
with sixty thousand troops, and entered Germany, 
determined to cover himself with glory and to re- 
establish Protestantism. 

Tilly had been bad enough in ravaging con- 
quered territory, but now Wallenstein, Duke of 
Friedland, appears on the scene. He had dis- 
tinguished himself in the battle of White Mount- 
ain, and in the war against the Turks had received 
most valuable grants of land, and large revenues 
from the Emperor. Wallenstein was now put in 
command of the Imperial forces. He was a per- 
vert from Protestantism to Rome, and such are 
always the most bigoted and intolerant. He 
had expelled the Hungarian troops from Moravia, 
and had accepted as pay the confiscated estates of 
his unfortunate countrymen. 

He agreed to raise and support his own army 



48 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

for the Emperor at his own expense. The ban- 
ditti of all Europe came to him for the promised 
loot, and, with an army of over one hundred 
thousand men, he took the field against Protest- 
antism, already a divided, cowed, broken body of 
people. Not since the Crusades had there been 
such a war of devastation. 

In five years Wallenstein and Tilly, who hated 
each other, but both under command of the Em- 
peror, had routed the troops of Mansfield, the 
strongest of the auxiliaries of the king of Den- 
mark, and had subdued Silesia, Lower Saxony and 
Holstein, As early as August, 1626, Christian 
IV. was defeated in the battle of Lutter, and was 
forced back to his own country for its defence. 
He was obliged to abandori his allies to the ven- 
geance of their enemies. By the end of the 
five years Mansfield and Brunswick, the leading 
Protestant princes, were dead, and their troops de- 
stroyed or scattered. Everywhere the Imperial- 
ists laid the country waste. 

Wallenstein took possession of Pomerania, and 
the Imperial forces, without opposition, marched 
into Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland, occupying 
all Denmark, except the islands. The neutral 
Protestant princes had their territories destroyed. 
This they fully deserved. 

The Danish king sued, for peace, and his pos- 
sessions were returned to him on condition that 
he would take no further part in the war. This 
concession was not from mercy, but because 
France and Sweden were now preparing to take 
arms against the House of Austria. 

In the conference at Lubeck, on May 22d, 1629, 



THE THiKTY YEARS' WAR. 49 

Wallenstein, with marked contempt, excluded the 
Swedish ambassadors while arranging terms with 
Denmark. 

Wallenstein had been so successful that he had 
visions of making himself Emperor, of converting 
the Baltic Sea into an Austrian lake, and there 
having a great fleet to increase his wealth and 
power. For these reasons he now set out to take 
the cities on the Baltic coast. He besieged Stral- 
sund, a Hanse town. The Hanse towns were 
the commercial towns of Germany, associated 
together for the protection of commercial interests. 
Wallenstein now had the title of "Admiral of the 
Baltic ' ' conferred on him by the Emperor. The 
new admiral said, ' ' There are twenty-eight ports 
in Pomerania ; we must fortify them to keep 
Sweden from attacking them." 

Stralsund represented not alone the Hanseatic 
League, but the Protestant faith and liberty of 
conscience. Wallenstein swore, ' ' I will capture 
Stralsund though it were chained to the gates of 
heaven." He did not take into the count God 
and the king of Sweden. 

The inhabitants of Stralsund were a deeply re- 
ligious people. With Wallenstein besieging their 
city, and well knowing the destruction of the coun- 
try over which they had passed, they took the 
oath to abide by the true religion of the Augs- 
burg Confession, to fight for it as well as for the 
rights and liberties of the city, and to stand by 
the Empire as long as the line of conduct would 
be justifiable before God, posterity, and in accord- 
ance with their oath to defend the city. This 
shows their faith in God ; to Him they appealed, 
4 



50 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

and after ten weeks siege, Wallenstein, at the 
order of the Emperor, after losing twelve thou- 
sand of his best troops, was forced to abandon the 
siege. 

Wallenstein had threatened to destroy every 
creature within its walls, so the women and chil- 
dren had been sent to Sweden, and that country 
provided the food from the side of Stralsund 
opening on the sea. 

But the Emperor now considered that his troops 
were so successful that he might put into the form 
of an edict that which they had been practicing 
ever since his coronation. He issued what is 
called the Edict of Restitution (1629 A. D.), con- 
fiscating all Protestant property obtained from 
Catholics since the Treaty of Passau. This vio- 
lated the Treaty of Augsburg, which had guaran- 
teed that property. This would have made war 
in time of peace, now it prolonged a war begun 
eleven years before. He further decided " that by 
the religious peace Catholic princes were under 
no further obligations to their Protestant subjects 
than to allow them to quit their territories." 

Under this edict the Protestant States were 
ordered to surrender all church property and all 
secularized religious foundations to the Imperial 
commissioner. The Protestants again quite under- 
stood that the extermination of their religion had 
been determined. The commissioners were ap- 
pointed, and Wallenstein was charged to enforce 
the edict. 

The enforcement began at Augsburg. The 
bishop was reinstated. He prohibited all worship 
of the Protestant form, and erected a gallows in 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 51 

front of the town hall to show what would hap- 
pen to those who disobeyed. 

Lorenz Forer, one of Wallenstem's captains, 
said, ' ' Be active, my friends, if some withstand 
you, kill and burn them in a fire that shall make 
the stars melt, and force the angels of heaven to 
withdraw their feet. ' ' 

A cry of agony and terror ran through all Ger- 
many. The Emperor's own brother wrote : "Your 
Majesty cannot form any idea of the conduct of 
the troops. I have myself waged war for a few 
years, and I know that it can seldom be carried 
on without leaving traces of violence. But to 
break windows, to overthrow walls, to commit 
arson, to cut off noses and ears, to torment, to 
commit rape, to murder for amusement' s sake, are 
disorders which field officers can and ought to op- 
pose. I know there are people who endeavor to per- 
suade your Majesty that these accusations are un- 
founded, but I hope that your Majesty will place 
at least as much reliance on me as on such gentle- 
men who fill their purses with the blood and toil 
of poor people. I could name you many officers 
who, a short time ago, had scarcely the means 
to clothe themselves, who to-day possess three or 
four hundred thousand florins in specie. Discon- 
tent increases threateningly, and my conscience 
does not allow me to conceal from your Majesty 
the true state of affairs." 

The Catholic princes and Duke Maximilian of 
Bavaria entreated that Wallenstein should be dis- 
missed. This was done, and he went back to his 
duchy in Bohemia. Some few of his worst offi- 
cers were sent away. But Tilly and Pappenheim, 



52 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

whose names have ever since been the synonym of 
pillage and devastation, were now placed in com- 
mand. 

The princes of Germany began to look with 
one accord toward Gustavus Adolphus, king of 
Sweden. The truce between Poland and Gus- 
tavus was concluded August 26th, 1629, the very 
year of the Edict of Restitution, and the Swedish 
king began to shape affairs in his own kingdom to 
help his brethren of the Protestant faith in Ger- 
many. 

His own door to the sea, the Baltic, even the 
security of his own State was threatened, but 
above all, he saw Protestantism in danger of being 
as much extinguished as it had been in Spain and 
Portugal. It is possible that he had some hopes 
of securing territory from Germany, while the war 
was on between Poland and Russia on one side 
and Gustavus on the other, the Emperor Ferdi- 
nand II. had declared Gustavus under the ban, 
and, no doubt, he was glad, as a man, to measure 
swords with the tyrant of Germany. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONDITIONS IN SWEDEN. 

When Gustavus was only twenty-six years of age, 
in the midst of wars and struggles, he was laying 
the foundations for a greater Sweden. In 1620 he 
inquired of the bishops how knowledge could be 
disseminated among the people. He claimed that 
he had a greater want than that of money, namely, 
competent persons for civil and military positions. 

He inquired what schools for the common peo- 
ple, what seminaries, what colleges were necessary 
to educate the people. He inquired where good 
teachers could be obtained from foreign countries, 
and required that they should be brought to 
Sweden. He said, ''The instruction in religion 
may be passable, but as the clergy do not under- 
stand matters of government and of civic life, 
they cannot be expected to prepare men for the 
State." So men of affairs were now secured to 
assist in teaching. 

In 1625 he granted to the Upsala Academy, as 
he called what is now the great Universit}^, from 
his own hereditary estates, three hundred and 
fifty manors, besides the crown tithes in several 
parishes, a stipend for many professors, and 
$3,250.00 yearly for the community or student 
house, with $2,500.00 yearly for maintenance, be- 
sides setting apart money for prizes. 
(53) 



54 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

He transferred to the Library at Upsala his 
printing plant, and began the Hbrary by present- 
ing his own books. He erected a hbrary building, 
and arranged for its endowment. He established 
four gymnasiums, or, as we would call them, col- 
leges, and laid the foundation for that general 
course of schools, colleges and universities which 
has made Sweden one of the best educated nations 
on earth. 

From 1627 Sweden had by letters patent opened 
the doors to Protestant exiles. The Dukes of 
Mecklenberg had there found asylum and honor- 
able occupation for their sons. 

The women and children of wealthy Germans 
had been sent to Sweden, and the common people 
were w^ell informed as to the devastating wars in 
Germany. 

Oxenstiern was not favorable to Gustavus go- 
ing to the relief of Germany. He feared for the 
life of his friend, and for the succession of the 
Vasas. The same view was taken by Skytte, his 
old tutor. The daughter of Gustavus was not 
yet quite four years of age. 

Before the Estates the king did not urge the de- 
fence of Protestantism so much as patriotism. He 
said, " Denmark is used up. The Imperial army 
of Papists have Rostock, Wismar, Stettin, Wol- 
gast, Griefswald and nearly all the other ports. 
Rugen is theirs, and they continue to threaten 
Stralsund. They aim to destroy Swedish com- 
merce and to plant a foot on the southern shores 
of our Fatherland. The fight is for house, home 
and faith." 

The Estates voted at once for regular and heavy 



CONDITIONS IN SWEDEN. 55 

taxes for three years. The nobles renounced their 
privilege of freeing tenants from service and tax- 
ation. The mercantile companies gave up their 
subsidies to provide for the fleet. Many had 
spoken against the war, but when the vote was 
taken all voted to sustain their king. 

Gustavus said : " I did not call you together be- 
cause of any doubt in my mind, but that you 
might oppose me if you wished. That freedom 
you no longer enjoy. You have spoken. My 
view is this, that for our safety, honor and final 
peace, I see nothing but to make a bold attack on 
the enemy. I hope it will be for the advantage of 
Sweden, but I also hope, if the day go hard with 
us, no blame will be laid upon me, for I have no 
other end in view but that advantage. I do not 
underrate the difficulties, such as the -want of 
means, or the doubtful issue of battle. It is no 
idle glory I am seeking, the king of Denmark is 
sufficient warning to me against that, besides thy 
judgment of posterity leaves a man very little 
glory, I am satisfied with glory and want no 
more. Your duty is clear, to exhort all my sub- 
jects to continue in their present devoted attitude. 
For myself, I see that I have no more rest to ex- 
pect but the rest of eternity." 

From this time Gustavus Adolphus met no 
further opposition among his own people. All 
Sweden at that time had only about one and a 
half million people, not so man}^ as now live in 
New York City. 

Richelieu sent a wily ambasador to Gustavus, 
but the king was careful to enter into no hamper- 
ing alliance with a Catholic power. Charnace, the 



56 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

emissary of Richelieu, twice visited Sweden, in 
the winter and spring of 1629 and 1630. He as- 
sured the king that the Protestant States would re- 
ceive him with open arms. The king replied that 
such was not the case. Gustavus well knew that 
the Elector of Saxony, although a Protestant, was 
an ally of the Emperor simply to save his country 
from devastation, and that his brother-in-law of 
Brandenburg was a slothful glutton, wanting only 
to be let alone. 

As long as Denmark might ' ' bite Sweden in 
the heel," Gustavus felt loth to leave his kingdom. 
He now had a personal interview with Christian 
IV. of Denmark and assured himself of good- 
will on that side, he renewed the guards along the 
side next Russia and Poland, and quietly made 
ready his army, both by land and sea, for going 
to the relief of Germany. 

The Emperor said : ' ' We shall now have 
another little enemy to fight. ' ' Wallenstein said 
that he could expel Gustavus, with the judicious 
use of a rod, as he might have spoken of a recal- 
citrant boy. At the same time Wallenstein offered 
thirty thousand dollars to anyone who would 
assassinate the king of Sweden, and thus save him 
using the rod. 

Falkenberg, a Swedish ambassador, visited the 
courts of Holland and of different Protestant 
German States, receiving fine verbal promises of 
assistance, but they utterl}^ refused to enter into 
a written alliance with Sweden. Lubeck and 
Hamburg advanced him money and agreed to ac- 
cept Swedish copper in return. 

Every Swedish regiment was now made up to 



CONDITIONS IN SWEDEN. 57 

its full complement. Thirty men-of-war, two 
hundred transports and fifteen thousand men were 
now ready to take their share in one of the most 
dangerous campaigns of the great war. It was a 
small army, but it was composed of veterans. 
Every individual had been seasoned in previous 
wars, and was perfect in discipline, courage and in 
devotion to his commander and king. The army 
was composed mostly of Swedes, but had several 
regiments of Scots and several more regiments of 
Germans. The king had a small but well-equipped 
corps of artillery. He was also well provided 
with shovels, spades and picks, with which to con- 
struct earthworks. 

Oxenstiern, at the time of the king's embarka- 
tion, was also sent, with ten thousand more men, 
to guard the frontier of Poland, and almost as 
many as Gustavus took with him were left to 
guard against sudden and unexpected invasion at 
home. 

He set every part of his kingdom in order, as 
one who goes forth to meet the doubtful issues 
of a great war. The law-making power of Sweden 
was vested in the four Estates : Nobility, Clergy, 
Burghers and Peasants. The consent of at least 
three of these was necessary to the king for every 
forward movement. 

So now, on May 19th, 1630, he called the Es- 
tates together, to rehearse before them the causes 
and conditions which forced the Swedish nation 
into the war. He was accompanied by the queen, 
also by the Council of State, in whose hands he 
was to leave the government. He carried in his 
arms his little daughter, Christina, then only four 



58 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

years of age. He presented her to the Estates as 
his successor in case of his death, and secured 
their renewed allegiance to her should he not re- 
turn. He read the ordinances for the government 
in his absence, or during the minority of his 
daughter. 

The assembly was in tears, and the king had to 
wait a few moments to overcome his own emotion 
before giving his farewell address : 

"Not lightly nor wantonly," said he, /'am I 
about to involve myself and you in this new and 
dangerous war. God is my witness that I do not 
fight to gratify my own ambition, but the Emperor 
has wronged me most grievously in the persons of 
my ambassadors ; he has supported my enemies, 
persecuted my friends and brethren ; he has tram- 
pled my religion in the dust, and even stretches 
his arm against my crown. The oppressed States 
of Germany call loudly for aid, which by God's 
help we will give them. 

' ' I am fully sensible of the dangers to which 
my life will be exposed. I have never shrunk 
from dangers, nor is it likely I shall escape them 
all. Hitherto Providence has wonderfully pro- 
tected me, but I shall at last fall in defence of my 
country. I commend you and all my absent 
subjects to the protection of heaven, and hope 
that we shall meet in eternity. 

' ' To you, my Councillors of State, I first ad- 
dress myself. May God enlighten you, and fill 
you with wisdom to promote the welfare of my 
people. You, too, my brave Noblemen, I com- 
mend to the divine protection. Continue to prove 
yourselves the worthy successors of those brave 



CONDITIONS IN SWEDEN. 59 

Goths whose bravery humbled to the dust the 
pride of ancient Rome. To you, Ministers of 
Rehgion, I recommend peaceableness and piety ; 
be yourselves examples of the virtues which you 
preach, and abuse not your influence over the 
minds of my people. On you, the Burghers and 
Peasants, I entreat the blessing of heaven ; may 
your industry be rewarded by a prosperous har- 
vest, your stores be plenteously filled, and may 
you be crowned abundantly with all the bless- 
ings of this life. For the prosperity of all my 
subjects, absent and present, I offer my warmest 
prayers to heaven. I bid you all a sincere — it 
may be an eternal farewell. ' ' 

The whole assembly was in tears, the king him- 
self was weeping, but after a few moments he said, 
in a natural voice, the words of the Psalm which 
he was accustomed to say aloud before enter- 
ing on any new undertaking. We give only 
the closing part, upon which he seemed to lay most 
emphasis : 

" Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we 
may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us 
glad according to the days wherein Thou hast 
afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen 
evil. Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and 
Thy glory unto their children, and let the beauty 
of the Lord our God be upon us ; and establish 
Thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the 
work of our hands establish Thou it. ' ' 

He set apart the first Friday of July, August 
and September as days of fasting and for prayer 
for the nation and for the army. 

In about ten days after this, at the beginning of 



60 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

June, he embarked at Elfsnabbe, surrounded and 
cheered by a concourse of weeping relatives and 
friends, but sent forward with their blessing and 
best wishes. 



CHAPTER IX. 

GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 

A continued southwest wind kept the fleet from 
making progress, and the ships were obHged to 
return to port. Their provisions ran out and had 
to be renewed from seaport towns. On account 
of contrary winds.it took five weeks to make 
that short distance. The landing took place on 
June 24th, 1630, the one hundredth anniversary of 
the day on which the Augsburg Confession had 
been presented to Charles V., Emperor of Ger- 
many, in the presence of the leading ecclesiastics 
and ruling princes and dukes of all Germany. 
Gustavus looked upon this as a good omen, for 
his coming was at a time when all those principles 
set forth in that Confession were endangered. 

He landed his troops on the islands of Wollin 
and Usedom. Stepping on shore he fell on his 
knees, and in the presence of his staff thanked God 
in these words : ^ ' O Thou who rulest over the 
heavens and the earth, over the wind and the sea. 
Lord, how can I worthily thank Thee for Thy 
miraculous protection which Thou hast graciously 
vouchsafed to me during this dangerous passage ? 
My heart is full of gratitude for all Thy benefits. 
Oh, deign io bless this enterprise undertaken for the 
the defence of Thy distressed Church, and the 
consolation of Thy faithful servants. Let it re- 
dound, not to my glory, but to Thine. God, 
(61) 



62 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

who triest the hearts and the reins, Thou knowest 
the purity of my intentions. Grant roe favorable 
weather and a good wind, which will cheer my 
brave army, and allow me to continue Thy sacred 
work. Amen. ' ' 

A man may talk with reservations to his fellow- 
men, but who would presume to be false in prayer 
before his God ? That prayer reveals beyond all 
possibility of doubt the real reason of his under- 
taking this great war. 

Joshua himself did not more implicitly rely 
upon his God than did this brave king. He so 
trusted on God's assistance that he marched with 
scant supply of food and monej^, and with what 
now seems like a mere handful of soldiers, against 
the trained troops of a great empire which for 
twelve years had met and conquered every foe on 
its triumphant march from the south of Germany 
to the Baltic Sea. 

He asked his officers and soldiers to pray much. 
He said : ' ' The more you pray the more victories 
will be ours. Incessant prayer is half a victory." 

When Gustavus had finished his prayer, he 
took a spade and began to work at the intrench- 
ments. Colonel Munro, commander of the Scots, 
says : "Gustavus was ever impatient till his sol- 
diers were guarded from their enemies, and when 
he had the fewest soldiers he took more pains with 
intrenchments." He well understood the duties 
of a civil engineer, and when no other was at 
hand, directed in person the intrenchment of his 
army. When the intrenchments were done he 
addressed his troops : 

"Do not believe I undertake this war for my- 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 63 

self or for my kingdom. We march to the reHef 
of our oppressed brethren. You will by brilliant 
victories accomplish this generous project and 
acquire immortal glory. Be not afraid of the 
enemies whom we are going to meet, they are the 
same whom you have already defeated in Prussia. 
Your gallantry has just forced Poland to conclude a 
trace of six years. If j^ou show the same courage, 
the same perseverance, you will procure for the 
Evangelical Church and for our German brethren 
the peace which they need." 

He then had the military laws and regulations 
proclaimed in which any outrage on person or 
property was to be punished with death. But 
Gustavus felt that his soldiers must be governed 
from within and not from without. To that end 
he urged the chaplains to preach the gospel faith- 
fully in camp, and he ordered that prayer meet- 
ings should be held twice each day. 

Men fresh from their homes, often homesick 
and heartsick for the home folks, were open to the 
message which their mothers and fathers had so 
often laid on their young hearts, so it is not sur- 
prising that the behavior of the Swedish army on 
a foreign soil is memorable to this day in Europe, 
in strong contrast to the Imperial army which em- 
bittered even friendly provinces in its devastating 
journeys. 

Gustavus immediately subdued the country on 
which he had made his descent, and having taken 
possession of Rugen, he expelled the Imperial 
troops from all neighboring islands, and made 
secure his communications with Sweden. 

He then advanced on Stettin, the capital of 



64 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

Pomerania, and forced the old Duke Bogislaus 
XIV. to make a quick decision between an alliance 
with Sweden or with the Empire. The people of 
the city hastened privately to pay their respects to 
the Swedish king as the true Defender of the Faith, 
to w^hich they also subscribed. He talked over 
with them the condition of Germany, the affairs of 
the Church, and of their faith and love, and com- 
pletely won their hearts. 

His personality at this time was most pleasing, 
his fair hair, his handsome beard, his tall, strong, 
lithe, athletic body predisposed everyone in his 
favor. 

The gates of Stettin were thrown open to him, 
but he quartered his soldiers in their tents and 
not in the city. The king entered into a close 
alliance with Sweden, thus making Pomerania a 
protecting State for Sweden, and also for the rear- 
guard of the Swedish army and for its line of com- 
munication with the home country. The army 
covered the greater part of Pomerania, in spite of 
the efforts of General Torquato-Conti, who had 
charge of all the Imperial troops stationed in this 
duchy. As he retreated he wreaked an awful 
vengeance upon the innocent people, capturing 
women, and even kiUing children, and leaving 
desolation in his wake. The people came out to 
meet the Swedes, and hailed them as saviours of 
the country. 

As Gustavus continued his journey through 
Pomerania his army was greatly increased. Troops 
who had fought under Mansfield, under Duke 
Christian of Brunswick, and under the king of 
Dei;imark, and all those disaffected because of 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 65 

Wallenstein now enrolled under his victorious 
banner, so that by the end of 1630, only a few 
months after leaving Sweden he ruled in Pomera- 
nia as sovereign. The Estates of the Duchy voted 
and paid him one hundred thousand florins. 

He was anxious to push on to Mecklenburg, but 
a severe northern winter was at hand and it was 
deemed best to wait and go into winter quar- 
ters. 

Whatever trepidation of heart the Emperor may 
have felt at these advances, he put on a bold front 
at Vienna and scoffed at the name of Gustavus 
Adolphus, declaring that the * ' Snow King of the 
North ' ' would soon melt away with his armj as 
he moved southward, but it is a curious fact that 
people of northern climates can accustom them- 
selves to any latitude, while people born under a 
hot sun cannot always endure cold, and the 
Swedes proved that they could fight in any land. 

The Emperor's confidence was by no means 
shared by the Catholic League. They now placed 
General Tilly, who, it was claimed, had never lost 
a battle, at the head of the Imperial forces. 

Since Wallenstein had been retired great com- 
panies of mercenary soldiers could be had by any 
commander who could pay them. If Gustavus 
had possessed money many of these would much 
have preferred to fight for him. But God was to 
show, as in the case of Gideon, what could be 
done with the few. In spite of his faith, however, 
Gustavus sometimes feared the future. The win- 
ter used up most of the food and the money. In 
a letter to Oxenstiern dated December, 1630, he 
says : '' May God, into whose hands I commit all, 
5 



66 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

help us to live through the winter. Then, thanks 
to your care and foresight, the summer will be 
more prosperous. I would like to describe our 
condition to you, but a sabre cut having rendered 
my hand stiff, I am prevented from doing so." 
Let it suffice you to know that the enemy enjoys 
every advantage for establishing his winter quar- 
ters, since all Germany has become his prey. If 
I had more soldiers with me on the bank of the 
Oder I would march forward. Although our 
cause is good and just the issue is uncertain — un- 
certain are also man's days. 

' ' Therefore, I pray you for Christ' s sake, be 
not discouraged if all does not succeed to our 
wishes. I most earnestly recommend my family 
to your care if misfortune befall me. It is in 
many respects worthy of interest. The mother 
needs advice, she is none too wise. The daugh- 
ter, a tender child, will be exposed to many diffi- 
culties if she should reign, and to many dangers 
if others should reign over her. I commit both 
of them, their future, my life and all that I pos- 
sess in this world, to God's holy and powerful 
keeping. I am persuaded that whatever may be- 
fall me on this earth will always be for my good, 
and after this life I hope to enjoy eternal peace 
and joy." 

Gustavus Adolphus did not remain inactive, but 
after conquering Pomerania he advanced into the 
Duchy of Brandenburg, for the purpose of reach- 
ing Mecklenburg. He pushed the Imperial troops 
from Pomerania, so that Tilly fell back to the 
Elbe, without venturing to defend Frankfort-on- 
tlie-Oder, which the Swedes successfully assaulted 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 67 

in a three-days siege about the middle of the win- 
ter. 

WilHam of Hesse-Cassel in October, 1630, glad- 
dened the heart of the king by entering into an 
alliance with him. Aside from this one prince, 
not one evangelical prince would come to his 
assistance. 

The Edict of Restitution set hard on the Luth- 
eran churches of Saxony and Brandenburg, yet 
these rulers looked upon Gustavus more as a rival 
than as a friend, so that they may be said to have 
forced Gustavus into an alliance with France. 
The treaty with France was signed at Baerwalde, 
in the Duch}^ of Brandenburg, January 13th, 1631. 
The contracting parties entered into an alliance 
offensive and defensive to protect their common 
friends, to restore the deposed Prince to the Em- 
pire, and as nearly as possible to restore Church 
and State possessions to the conditions existing 
before the disturbance began in Bohemia, and be- 
fore the Edict of Restitution. 

France now agreed to furnish Gustavus for the 
payment of his troops four hundred thousand dol- 
lars annually, and paid one hundred thousand 
dollars cash for the year past, the object of France 
being to check the House of Austria and to retain 
what is called in Europe ' ' the balance of power. ' ' 

Gustavus agreed to keep an armed force of not 
less than thirty-six thousand in Germany till 
peace should be agreed upon, and to leave Catho- 
lics alone where he found that religion prevailing. 
Gustavus had not the slightest reverence nor pa- 
tience with the worn out idea of the Holy Roman 
Empire. With him religion was an intense in- 



68 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

centive to action, and sloth, indifference, laziness 
were qualities which made him angry to intoler- 
ance. 

Bill there was a curious alL giance of the smaller 
German States to that name — the Holy Roman 
Empire. It was only after two centuries of having 
tht'iv territory sacrificed again and again to uphold 
a crumbling dynasty that they began to center 
tiifir eyes on North Germany for a union. Had 
Ferdinand turned Lutheran a truly united Ger- 
many would have been made in the seventeenth 
instead of the nineteenth century, for he came to 
an em])ire in which the majority of his subjects 
were Protestants. He had said that he preferred 
to fLde in an uninhabited wilderness rather than 
to have a piosperous nation of heretics. When 
lie left it the wilderness was over what had been a 
prosperous State. 

John George, the Elector of Saxony, was the 
leader and most powerful Protestant ruler in 
North Germany. He was a Protestant, but he 
announced that he preferred an alliance with the 
Emperor. Then George William, Elector of 
Brandenburg, was slothful, and although a broth- 
er-in-law of Gustavus, was jealous of the hard-won 
laurels of the Swedish king. 

The jealousy of those Protestant princes show 
that whatever religion they may have professed 
they had very little of the grace of God in their 
hearts. The King of Denmark may be ranked 
with these. He was anxious to have Gustavus 
wrecked even as he had been, in order to curtail 
the power of the Swedish kingdom. 

John George, Elector of Saxony, convened the 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 69 

rulers of the Protestant States of the Empire at 
Leipzig, February, 1631, to enter a remonstrance 
against the oppressions of the Empire. Gustavus 
made known to them his alliance with Fran.ce and 
entreated them to join him in protecting the Prot- 
estant faith.* 

Richelieu sent his own gifted diplomat, Char- 
nace, to lay before them the dangers which threat- 
ened their religion. Gustavus was even willing to 
accept a secret support, .if the princes w^ere afraid 
of the wrath of the Emperor. But the Elector of 
Saxony was so filled with the spirit of envy and 
jealousy that he not only refused alliance himself 
but persuaded the others to at least defer entering 
into any agreement with the Swedish king. The 
Duke of Weimar and his brother urged that Prot- 
estantism needed just such a leader to unite them, 
and failing to convince the assembly, they with- 
drew in anger from the convention. 

There were sixty-two princes of the two re- 
formed creeds. There w^ere no end of committees. 
All possible grievances were presented to the Em- 
peror in the form of petition. There was an 
implied threat that unless their cry was heard 
at some future time they would arm for the de- 
fence of the Augsburg Confession, John George 
agn^eing to give eleven thousand men, and George 
WilUam five thousand for the CRUse. The name 
of Gustavus Adolphus was carefully kept out of 
every public document. The Emperor answered 
their appeal by ordering th^m to adjourn at once, 
or Leipzig should be blown about their ears. 

In the meantime Gustavus learned that Tilly 

* What occured at this Diet would be a good dramatic chapter. 



70 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

had gone to besiege Magdeburg, and the king of 
Sweden made immediate preparation to go to the 
rehef of that devoted city. 

Tilly had taken a town guarded by two thou- 
sand Swedes. A surrender was forced, and the 
Swedes agreed to lay down their arms on condi- 
tion of an oath not to serve again during the war. 
The poor fellows had failed to receive a dispatch 
from their king to retreat and leave the town to its 
fate. They were butchered to the last man. The 
only cruel thing recorded in the history of Gus- 
tavus was his revenge for this crime. When he 
captured Frankfort-on-the-Oder two thousand 
prisoners of war were slain. Such is war. We 
shall see how Tilly retaliated on Gustavus for 
this. Cruelty, even in war, is always bad policy, 
aside from being a sin against God. 

He asked at the hand of Brandenburg that he 
be permitted to hold the fortresses of Kustrin and 
Spandau till the siege of Magdeburg could 
be raised. But his brother-in-law, afraid of 
the wrath of the Emperor, utterly refused. 
The anger of his Emperor concerned him much 
more than the anger of his Lord. King Gus- 
tavus wrote him : ' ' My road is to Magde- 
burg, not for my own advantage, but for that of 
the Protestant religion. If no one will stand by 
me I shall immediately retreat, conclude a peace 
with the Emperor and return to Stockholm. I 
am convinced that Ferdinand will readily grant 
me whatever conditions I may require. But if 
Magdeburg is once lost, and the Emperor relieved 
of all fear of me, then it is for you to look for 
yourselves and the consequences. He who makes 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 71 

a sheep of himself will be eaten by the wolf. For 
I tell you plainly, I will not hear a word of neu- 
trality. Your serenity must be either friend or 
foe. As soon as I get to your frontier you will 
have to declare yourself. Here strive God and 
the devil. If you will hold with God, come over 
to me. If you prefer the devil, you will have to 
fight me first. There shall be no neutral party in 
this war." 

It was just what Duke George William wanted, 
to be the third party. He hoped he could hold 
off and eventually be the balance of power be- 
tween the Empire and Gustavus, King of Sweden. 
The Elector of Brandenburg actually gave orders 
to the commanders of these fortresses, Kustrinand 
Spandau, to let the Imperial troops ''pass and 
repass," but if the Swedes come "pray them to 
turn back," but if prayers failed, they were to be 
allowed to pass, for their conduct would show 
their power. Such an order must have been given 
while the duke was on one of his after-dinner too 
free libations. 

As the Swedish army approached Spandau was 
granted to Gustavus, for the Elector saw that even 
without his consent, Gustavus would take it. 
Then John George, Elector of Saxony, controlled 
by his own envy and jealousy, utterly refused to 
let Gustavus have free passage through his State, 
even forbidding him to cross the Elbe. 

Gustavus did not desire to go to war with the 
prince who was the very head and front of the 
Protestant Union, which in the February meeting 
had demanded the revocation of the Edict of Res- 
titution. 



72 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

He had to force his way into Mecklenburg, 
whose ruHng princes were his kinsmen. He had 
given them shelter and kindness when they had 
been pressed by the Imperial forces. Indeed, his 
entering the Thirty Years' War was partly on their 
behalf, but the Emperor had his Jesuits every- 
where, and when Gustavus landed in Pomerania 
he found the Dukes of Mecklenburg more friendly 
to the Imperialists than to him. He needed that 
State to secure his rear and to keep open com- 
munications with Sweden. 

In the meantime, while Gustavus was conquer- 
ing small towns and restoring order to Pomerania 
(to which the frightened inhabitants were return- 
ing), and was being harassed, worried and an- 
noyed beyond human words to express by these 
two Protestant electors, let us recall what was 
happening to Magdeburg. 

Gustavus had despatched General Falkenberg, 
an experienced officer, to Magdeburg, He had 
entered the city disguised as a boatman. He 
found the people discouraged and disheartened, 
but this intrepid soldier so revived them that, with 
three thousand militia, two thousand of the regular 
infantry and one hundred and fifty horsemen, 
they determined to resist the Imperialists, consist- 
ing of thirty-three thousand infantry and nine 
thousand cavalry. 

There are pages of pathos in every history, but 
nothing exceeds the pathetic picture of that heroic, 
devoted soldier refusing quarter because the con- 
dition of surrender was that they should become 
Papists. There were traitors within the walls. 
Three hundred of them rushed with great joy to 



GUSTAVUS IX GERMANY. 73 

the invaders as they entered the city, but were 
mostly cut down. 

Magdeburg was taken May 10th by storm. 
Their first vengeance was on the Protestant clergy. 
They killed them in their homes, and burned them 
and their books together. They bound the wives 
and daughters of the clergy to the tails of their 
horses. They dragged them into camp, where 
they were outraged and murdered. St. John's 
Lutheran Church was filled with women, the Im- 
perialists nailed the doors shut and burned the 
church. They tied the most beautiful women of 
the city to the stirrups of their horses and raced 
each other, with their victims, out of town. They 
carried screaming children aloft on their bloody 
pikes ; of the entire city only the cathedral, the 
cloister and four or five houses were left. General 
Falkenberg perished with his men. When called 
to surrender, he replied, "I hold out while I 
live." 

The Imperialists were in momentary fear that 
Gustavus would arrive, so that they filled every 
hour of three days and nights in robbery, rape 
and murder, unequaled in all the annals of his- 
tory. Babes were speared at their mothers' 
breasts. One miscreant boasted that he had 
burned twenty infants. Fifty-three women were 
beheaded at one time, while at prayers. Probably 
forty thousand perished in this holocaust. In this 
manner the ban of the Holy Roman Empire was 
executed on a German city for defending the 
gospel. 

Tilly wrote his Emperor : " Not since Troy and 
Jerusalem has there been such a victory. ' ' On 



74 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

Falkenberg's house a tablet was placed, " Remem- 
ber May 10th, 1631," and all Protestants who 
know history from that day to this do, with bitter- 
ness of heart, remember that dreadful day. 

Tilly was born in Brabant in 1559. He had 
been educated in a college of Jesuits and well 
represented their principles. He had distinguished 
himself in the Turkish war, and in the war of the 
Netherlands, under the Duke of Alva, whom he 
took for his model. In his private life he was 
moral, and like Paul before his conversion, he 
really thought to kill heretics was doing God's 
service. But Magdeburg ruined his reputation, 
he became tormented with remorse ; the hatred 
later shown to him and his retreating forces em- 
bittered his later years, and, possibly, may have 
caused that remorse. 

But where was Gustavus Adolphus during this 
woeful time ? He was held back by Duke John 
George of Saxony, and by his own brother-in-law, 
Duke George William of Brandenburg. The latter 
was a weak creature, perfectly under the the influ- 
ence of his minister, Schwazzenberg, an employe 
of the Emperor of Austria. 

Neither of these princes dreamed that Magde- 
burg would be destroyed, they only expected it to 
change hands. There was something of hatred 
among the princes against the Hanseatic towns, 
which was a factor in their detention of Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

The Jesuits circulated the report that the king 
of Sweden had voluntarily left Magdeburg to 
perish. They hoped by that means to alienate 
the other Protestants from Gustavus. It was not 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 75 

difficult for him to clear himself of this charge, 
and most histories now agree that the destruction 
of Magdeburg was due to the prejudices, envies, 
jealousies and mistrust of the Electors of Saxony 
and Brandenburg. Gustavus had written the 
Elector of Saxony, when Magdeburg was threat- 
ened : "I see myself obliged to lower my preten- 
sions and not to advance further. To post myself 
between two wavering powers, or to abandon the 
rivers by which all my convoys arrive, would be 
contrary to all rules of military science. However, 
I wish to show Magdeburg how much solicitude I 
feel for her, and should I sacrifice my life, I 
shall do all I can to deHver her. May God 
sustain me by His grace, and make my persever- 
ance triumphant. Before God and before men I 
declare that I am innocent of all the blood that 
will be shed, and of all the misfortunes that will 
happen. ' ' 

The terror and agony caused by the destruction 
of Magdeburg soon changed to hot indignation, 
and the German people raised such a hue and cry 
against their princes that they were, for the most 
part, glad to throw themselves into the arms of 
the king of Sweden. But that hopeful brother- 
in-law refused even to permit Gustavus to hold the 
fortress of Spandau. 

Gustavus well knew that if he left Brandenburg, 
Berlin would follow Magdeburg, so, as he retreated 
from Spandau, either as a huge joke or in earnest, 
he planted his artillery to command the city of 
Berlin. The ladies of the Elector's family came 
in person to entreat Gustavus not to move north 
and leave them to the mercy of the Imperialists, 



76 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

and to beg him not to shell the city. They assured 
him that the Elector would treat with him, make 
any treaty — only Gustavus must not leave the 
Duchy to the fate of Magdeburg. Munro says : 
"And the king answered, merrily, that if the 
Duke did not conclude a treaty with him before 
night he would send the Duchess and all the ladies 
prisoners to Sweden, and that the Duke should 
follow." The alliance was concluded June 11th, 
Gustavus to hold Spandau during the war, and to 
have free passage through Kustrin and to use any 
other fortresses he might need. A payment of 
thirty thousand dollars a month and liberal con- 
tributions for the support of the army were also 
granted. 

About this time Gustavus learned that Griefs- 
wald, the only fortress which the Imperialists yet 
held in Pomerania, had surrendered to the Swed- 
ish General Ake Tott. The Czar of Moscow sent 
messengers to congratulate him, also to renew his 
alliance and to offer him troops. Gustavus was 
much gratified at this attitude of Russia, as it was 
most desirable to keep Sweden undisturbed by any 
foreign foe while its king was absent from his 
country. 

The latter part of June Gustavus employed in 
reinstating the Dukes of Mecklenburg, who were 
now put into full possession of all their duch}^, 
except Rostock and Wismar. They proved very 
ungrateful, and General Ake Tott had great diffi- 
culty in making them furnish their share of con- 
tributions for the war which gave back to them 
their possessions. 

General Tilly now marched direct from Magde- 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 77 

burg to Thuringia, in order to force the Landgrave 
of Hesse to disband the troops he had gathered 
for the assistance of the king of Sweden, also to 
force him to receive Imperial garrisons in his 
fortresses, and to pay a large war indemnity. Of 
course, he refused to comply with these demands. 
As Tilly passed over the country everything was 
laid waste. His army had been almost as de- 
moralized by the victory at Magdeburg as if it had 
been a defeat. The men of the army seem never 
to have desisted even for a single day from rob- 
bery, arson and all forms of nameless crimes. 

Meanwhile, General Bauer, of Gustavus' army, 
had stormed Havelberg, so that now the Swedes 
held nearly all the country north of the Elbe, 
and were ready to take the aggressive. But think 
of it, he had been obliged to conquer the duchies 
of Mecklenburg and Brandenburg, whose princes 
were Protestants and should have been more in- 
terested in bringing the army supplies, furnishing 
troops and driving back the Imperialists, than 
Gustavus himself. It was not their religion, but 
their lack of religion that was at fault. 

The Landgrave of Hesse gave Tilly's troops 
such a severe rebuff that the Imperipd army was 
ordered immediately into Thuringia, but Tilly, 
hearing where Gustavus and his army were located, 
made his way to that portion of the country and 
encamped on the same side of the Elbe River as 
Gustavus. 

The Swedes routed three of Tilly's regiments, 
carried off most of their baggage and burned the 
remainder. But Gustavus' army had been weak- 
ened by much sickness during the winter and he 



78 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

carefully avoided a general engagement, while 
Tilly considered the entrenchments of the Swedes 
far too formidable for assault. Tilly wasted con- 
siderable time before the Swedish camp, then bent 
his course toward Saxony. Up to this time this 
country had been spared, because of the loyalty of 
its ruling house to Austria, and because Emperor 
Ferdinand II. earnestly desired to keep Duke 
John George with his party, but it was a rich 
country, and now Tilly and his hordes pounced 
upon it like birds of prey on a carcass. A line of 
two hundred burning villages marked Tilly's 
march to the neighborhood of Leipzig. 

Now the Elector, when the beak of the enemy 
was at his own vitals, turned quickly to Gustavus. 
He sent Field Marshal Arnheim to request the im- 
mediate help of the king of Sweden. The king 
must have been gratified, though no word of his- 
tory shows any exultation on his part. He replied 
to the Field Marshal : " I am sorry for the Elector ; 
had he heeded my repeated remonstrances his 
country- would never have seen the face of an 
enemy, and Magdeburg would not have been de- 
stroyed. Now, when necessity leaves no other 
alternative, he seeks my assistance. But tell him 
that I cannot, for his sake, ruin my own cause and 
that of my confederates. What pledge have I for 
the sincerity of a prince whose minister is in the 
pay of Austria and who will abandon me as soon 
as the Emperor flatters him and withdraws his 
troops from Saxony ? ' ' 

In spite of the coldness of the king, Arnheim 
persisted, for he had been ordered to secure the 
assistance of the king of Sweden at any price. 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 79 

Arnheim pressed him to name any conditions, 
saying : " I shall see they are accepted. ' ' At last 
Gustavus said : "I require that the Elector shall 
cede to me the fortress of Wittenberg, deliver to 
me his eldest son as hostage, furnish my troops 
with three months' pay, and deliver up to me the 
traitors among his ministry." 

' ' Not Wittenberg alone, ' ' said the Elector, when 
he had read the message, ' ' but Torgau and all 
Saxony shall be open to him, my whole family 
shall be hostages, and if that is not enough, I will 
place myself in his hands. Return and inform 
him I am ready to deliver to him any traitors he 
shall name, to furnish his army with any money 
he requires, and to venture my life and fortune in 
the good cause. ' ' 

The king had only been testing him, and now, 
believing in the sincerity of the Elector's inten- 
tions, he very much modified his demands. * ' The 
distrust," said the king, "which he had shown 
me when advancing to the relief of Magdeburg, 
had made me distrustful ; his present confidence 
demands a return. I shall be satisfied if he grants 
my army one month's pay, and even for this ad- 
vance I hope to indemnify him." 

On September 1st, 1631, the princes signed an 
alliance, and on September 5th the Saxon army 
joined that of Sweden. Tilly had encamped near 
Leipzig and had fired on the city. He said to his 
army, jubilant with the hope of plunder, ' ' Hith- 
erto heretics have never gained a victory in a 
pitched battle." Gustavus took the opposite 
course. He assembled all his field officers about 
him the evening before the battle, and said * * ' I 



80 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

neither despise our enemies, nor represent the 
affair as more easy than it is. I do not conceal it ; 
we have before us an experienced, powerful, vic- 
torious enemy, who has hitherto, during his long 
wars, been always triumphant. But the more 
celebrated this enemy is the greater will be the re- 
nown which we shall obtain by conquering him. 
All honor, praise and glory which our adversaries 
have acquired during so many years can, with 
the help of God, be our own within twenty- 
four hours. On our side is the right. We do not 
contend for temporal goods, but for the glory and 
for the word of God ; for the true religion, which 
alone is able to save, hitherto grievously oppressed 
by the Catholics and which they now intend to 
entirely destroy. We must not doubt that 
Almighty God, who, in spite of all resistance, has 
led us safely through all kinds of dangers, will 
now grant us His efficient assistance." Then he 
rode through his camp, cheering with kind words 
his. soldiers, and making each feel that he was in- 
deed an important factor for his king, for his 
country and for his religion. 

Munro says the Elector of Saxony and his troops 
looked as if they were there to have pictures or 
portraits taken, while the Swedes, who had been 
on a long march and had slept in a dusty field, 
looked like servants, and they both looked tame 
beside the besilvered, begilded and beplumed 
Imperialists. The Swedish horses looked like 
ponies beside the gigantic German chargers. The 
king had on a plain buff-colored suit, a gray hat, 
with a green plume. 

In the meantime, Tilly pushed close to Leipzig 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 81 

and promised to leave it like Magdeburg if it did 
not yield. But conditions were not the same. On 
September 4th the bombardment began. On the 
6th the city sent to offer Tilly a large sum of 
money in ransom, then capitulated on condition 
that the Protestant religion should not be sup- 
pressed and the garrison be permitted to march 
out with honors of war. Tilly put three thou- 
sand soldiers in the city and determined to await 
the Swedes and Saxons, with his back protected 
by the city. 

On September 9th, 1631, the hostile armies 
were in sight of each other, between Breitenfield 
and Leipzig, and here the great battle of the war 
was to be fought. It was not Tilly and Gustavus 
Adolphus, but the two systems of religion which 
that day stood face to face. The Swedish and 
Saxon army amounted to about thirty-five thou- 
sand men, and the Emperor and the Catholic 
League had about the same number. But if all 
the milUons which each side represented had all 
been present, the battle would not have been more 
representative, more decisive, nor more impor- 
tant. 

Tilly's usual confidence had deserted him, and 
he said afterward that he was forced into battle 
by his own subordinate, General Pappenheim. 

The battle began with two hours of cannonad- 
ing, the wind, being from the west, blew the 
smoke, the dust from the plains and from a 
plowed field, into the faces of the Swedes. The 
king quickly moved his forces to the north, and 
Tilly left his position and attacked the Swedes, 
but their fire was so galling that he moved to the 
6 



82 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

right and attacked the Saxons with such tremen- 
dous impetuosity that their Hne was broken and 
the whole army thrown into confusion. The 
Elector himself retired to Eilenberg, but in spite 
of his defection, a few of his best regiments held 
their ground and saved the good name of Saxony. 

Pappenheim, the Phil Sheridan of the Imperial 
army, threw his best cavalry regiments against the 
Swedes, where the king of Sweden himself com- 
manded. Seven times did Pappenheim make his 
swift charge, seven times repulsed. He left most 
of his men on the field, which he abandoned to his 
conquerors. In the meantime, Tilly, having 
routed the remainder of the Saxons, attacked with 
his triumphant troops the left wing of the Swedes, 
commanded by General Gustavus Horn. The 
Swedes made a gallant resistance, until the king, 
with the troops who had driven Pappenheim from 
the field, came to terminate the battle. After 
driving Tilly and his troops out of the way, Gus- 
tavus reached the eminence on which the Imperial 
artillery had been placed, and he turned on the 
Imperialists the full destructive play of their 
own artillery. Tilly forced a retreat through the 
midst of his conquerors, and left only four veteran 
regiments to meet Gustavus and his victors. 

These veterans of Tilly's had never known de- 
feat. By night their numbers were reduced to onlj^ 
six hundred men. As soon as the darkness came 
they fled from the field, leaving the Swedes in 
undisputed possession. The king of Sweden 
threw himself on his knees and gave public thanks 
to God in earnest prayer for this wonderful victory. 
He then rode through the ranks, shaking hands 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 83 

with his officers and thanking his brave men in 
warm words of praise for their heroic actions. 

The same day he wrote Chancellor Oxenstiern : 
''Although we mourn the loss of many brave 
men, we must, nevertheless, above- all, thank God 
for this victory and protection which He has given 
us, for we have never incurred greater dangers. ' ' 

On that battle-field now stands a great monu- 
ment with this inscription : 

" Gustavus Adolphus, 
The Christian and Hero, 
Saved, near Breitenfield, 
Eehgious Liberty to the World." 



CHAPTER X. 

GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. CONTINUED. 

The battle of Breitenfield marks an important 
epoch in history. Ferdinand had a dream of an- 
nexing all northern Europe to the Holy Roman 
Empire. When he failed at Stralsund he saw the 
limit of his northern stretch ; at Breitenfield he 
knew the limitations of his army. This battle 
really restored to freedom and to Protestantism all 
northern Europe. 

It marks an era in military affairs. Gustavus 
had practiced his army in great flexibility, or mo- 
bility, and this quality had triumphed over 
weight and numbers. Colonel Munro says : ^' Oh! 
would to God I had once again such a leader to 
fight such another day in this old quarrel, and 
though I died standing, I should be persuaded I 
died well." 

The united forces of the Emperor and the Cath- 
olic League were broken. Gustavus now reaped 
the benefit of all his smaller conquests. Of the 
great Imperial army but two thousand remained, 
with Tilly old, discouraged and discredited. The 
peasantry fell upon Tilly's retreating army and 
almost annihilated it. On every side rang the 
words of a rude song of the period, ^'Fly, Tilly, 
fiy ! " It was howled and hissed and yelled by 
the peasantry till he had fled far southward. 
Tilly was heartbroken as much by the hate shown 
(84) 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 85 

his men in retreat as by the disasters of the battle- 
field. 

Gustavus now had full liberty to go wherever 
he desired. Richelieu expected the King of 
Sweden to march at once to Vienna. The Elector 
of Saxony urged the same course. When Oxen- 
stiern came, soon after this, on a short visit and 
met his king at Mainz he said plainly : ''I would 
rather have proffered my congratulations at Vien- 
na. ' ' But the king thought differently ; he knew 
the wily electors who might at any time stab him 
in the back, and he doubtless understood Ferdi- 
nand's hereditary position, that, though driven 
from Vienna he would have the heart loyalty of 
all Catholics and many Protestants as Emperor of 
the Holy Roman Empire, and Gustavus believed 
such a course would greatly protract the war. 

Gustavus said, ' ' First pure, then peaceable ; ' ' 
so as he passed through the country having 
churches rebuilt, property restored, and above all, 
restoring hope and courage to the desolated prov- 
inces, he was everywhere hailed as a friend and 
deliverer, and just for a short time in the lull 
after the battle, it looked as if his work were 
really done. 

Even after this great battle he continued to 
preserve perfect discipline ; every morning public 
prayer was offered to God, and Gustavus, with 
bared head stood before his victorious army lead- 
ing them in a hymn of thanksgiving. What an 
object-lesson in godliness it was alike to the pious 
and the impious, not alone for that age, but for 
all time to come. 

The defeat of the Imperialists at Breitenfield 



86 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

settled the fate of the Edict of Restitution. At 
Vienna pious CathoHcs wondered ' ' if God had in- 
deed turned Lutheran." 

At Halle, Gustavus divided his army. He sent 
the Elector of Saxony into Bohemia, which was 
most anxious to shake off the Imperial yoke. The 
King of Sweden may have remembered that Bo- 
hemia was Ferdinand's crown lands and the 
Elector of Saxony would by that act forever ex- 
clude himself from Ferdinand's favor and be most 
fully committed to the perpetual alliance with 
Sweden. Gustavus himself undertook to march 
over all western Germany and to crush out the 
Catholic League in its different centers. 

Even the Catholics who had been so badly 
treated by Tilly's army, seeing the good conduct 
of the Swedish troops, came out to meet Gustavus 
and greeted him as the liberator of the country. 
His march through Thuringia and Franconia to 
the Main and the Rhine reads like a triumphal 
procession. 

The Duke of Saxe- Weimar now Joined forces 
with Gustavus. He proved to be a skillful gen- 
eral and was useful in many ways, especially 
because of his familiarity with the country. 

As Gustavus approached Wurzburg the Cath- 
olic bishop of that city, so noted for his persecu- 
tion of Protestants, fled and left his people to the 
mercy of the invaders. The city surrendered 
without any resistance. The king considered that as 
the country had been abandoned by its rulers the 
sovereignty became his, so he appointed a cabinet, 
one-half of whose members were Protestants. He 
restored to the Protestants their churches and en- 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 87 

couraged the Catholics to attend their own 
churches, and to put them in repair. Only those 
who refused to submit were severely dealt with. 
He w^as really the first i)rince who understood re- 
ligious toleration. In every place he claimed 
that as God's dealing is personal to each indi- 
vidual, each person should have liberty of con- 
science. 

On one occasion when a Catholic town had been 
captured, his officers suggested that here he could 
revenge Magdeburg. The king answered, " I 
have come to break the chains of slavery and not 
to forge new ones. Let them live as they have 
done hitherto. ' ' 

Gustavus now made a triumphal march, loved 
and respected by both Catholics and Protestants, 
through the garden spot of Germany. After 
resting his weary troops in the rich district of 
Wurzburg,he continued his march to Fi^ankfort-on- 
the-Main, which opened her gates at the first sum- 
mons. Gustavus crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim 
and on December 20th he entered Mainz, having 
cleared the Palatinate of its Spanish garrison. The 
Elector of Saxony and General Armin invaded Bo- 
hemia and occupied Prague. Gustavus now com- 
manded from the Arctic Ocean to the Alps, and 
from the Rhine to the Moldau. He encamped at 
Main with an army of twenty thousand men. All 
the Protestant princes here paid him court. It 
was his plan to form a Corpus Evangelicum, or 
Union, under the protection of Sweden, which 
w^ould include what is now called Germany and 
all Scandinavia. 

France was much disconcerted by these Swedish 



03 GUSTAVUS ADOT.PHUS II. 

victories. It was all right to curtail the preten- 
sions of the House of Hapsburg, but to the eyes 
of Richelieu it would be a much worse fate for a 
new Emperor of Germany to bear the name of 
Gustavus than to let the Hapsburgs have undue 
sway. 

Richelieu now insisted that Gustavus must come 
to an understanding with the Catholic League of 
southern Germany. Gustavus refused to surren- 
der his conquests till the League saw that Maxi- 
milian of Bavaria, who was the head of the 
League, was disarmed. Richelieu at that broke 
his alliance with Gustavus and renewed his 
alliance with the Emperor. This was quite equiv- 
alent to a declaration of war. Richelieu declared 
himself the protector of the Catholic princes. 
They again took heart and brought together their 
armies in behalf of Austria. 

The Jesuits who were at the Protestant courts 
succeeded in again stirring up the envy and jeal- 
ousy of those weak northern Protestant German 
Electors. The Elector of Saxony now went back 
in heart, if not in force, to Austria. 

Gustavus had felt that this would occur, and 
this was the main reason he had not pushed his 
triumph to Vienna. He now quickly conquered 
Franconia. Frankfort-on-the-Main, instead of 
opening her gates in welcome at his approach, 
wanted a parley. This city had received special 
commercial advantages from the Empire, and now 
they feared if Gustavus were well received they 
would lose their celebrated fairs. When sum- 
moned to surrender they sent a deputation to the 
King of Sweden explaining these conditions and 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 89 

hoping he would not urge compliance with his 
demands. 

Gustavus was justly indignant. He said : '' I am 
very much astonished that when the liberties of Ger- 
many and the Protestant religion are at stake the 
citizens of Frankfort talk of annual fairs, and post- 
pone for temporal interests the great cause of their 
country and their conscience." He continued : 
' ' I have managed to find the keys of every town 
and fortress from the Island of Rugen to the 
Main, and I know where to find the key of Frank- 
fort. The safety of Germany and the freedom of 
the Protestant faith are the sole objects of my in- 
vasion. Conscious of the justice of the cause, I 
am determined not to allow any object to impede 
my progress. I am well aware that the inhabit- 
ants of Frankfort wish to stretch out only a finger 
to me, but I must have the whole hand to grasp. ' ' 

With his army he escorted the deputies back to 
the city, and in full battle array awaited the de- 
cision of the city. The gates were immediately 
opened and the entire army marched through the 
old imperial city, making a magnificent procession 
conducted in wonderful order. Here again the 
Protestant prinoes came to offer congratulations, 
to secure favors, or to appease his indignation at 
their heavy apathy. It was in Frankfort that the 
crown was yet voted upon, and placed on the one 
selected as head of the Holy Roman Empire. 

Queen Eleanor Marie here visited him in 
company with Chancellor Oxenstiern. Neither 
of them approved of the brilliant court sur- 
rounding Gustavus, and the queen, with the swift 
intuitive knowledge w^hich God gives to good wo- 



90 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

men, felt that underneath all these protestations 
these Protestant princes had envy and jealousy in 
their hearts. Oxenstiern, that keen judge of men, 
came to the same conclusions. The king felt these 
things himself, and felt, also, that these princes, 
so divided among themselves, had little religion 
worth defending. He occasionally broke out in 
public, showing his surprise and pain at the atti- 
tude of their minds. On one occasion he said : 
" I wish to make peace if I am offered honorable 
conditions, such as will secure the welfare of the 
Protestant princes and their oppressed subjects, 
for whose sake I have undertaken this war and 
shed my blood. But I shall never conclude a 
peace by which the honor of Protestant princes 
would be sacrificed, their unhappy subjects bear 
an iron yoke, and our religion compromised." 

George, Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, pro- 
fessed great friendship for the king, but secretly 
kept up a continued intercourse with the Em- 
peror. On one occasion, when an unusual num- 
ber of traitors happened to be among his guests, 
Gustavus said to George of Hesse Darmstadt : " If 
the Emperor does not care for me I shall not care 
for him. You may inform him of this, for I 
know you are well disposed towards his majesty." 
The landgrave was greatly confused by this unex- 
pected thrust and stammered some excuse, but 
Gustavus continued : ' ' He who receives $30, - 
000.00 a year has indeed a reason to be the Em- 
peror's friend. Were I to make such a present to 
anyone he must have well deserved it. It would 
be easy for me to enter into negotiations did I not 
consider the danger to those who have assisted me 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 91 

in this war for the restoration of the true rehgion." 

That which the friends of Gustavus most feared 
was assassination. He suddenly awoke one night 
and found an armed man who proved to be a 
Catholic priest of Antwerp in his room. Jesuits 
were sent through the country to circulate calum- 
nies against him. In Menz public prayer was 
offered for him, and at the same time an assassin 
was paid to take his life. 

At Vienna on two successive days all Catholics 
were urged to pray for the successful execution of 
a project which God and one man knew, and on 
which the welfare of the Roman Church depended. 

Gustavus well knew of all these things, but he 
declared that he could not live shut up in a box, 
and he urged that when he should be called to his 
account God would raise up another leader, that 
it was the cause and not the individual that God 
was leading to victory. 

The entire Catholic world was now clamoring 
that Richelieu was misrepresenting France by be- 
ing the friend of Gustavus, an enemy of- the Cath- 
olic Church. Richelieu tried to persuade the 
Catholic League to complete neutrality, and leave 
Ferdinand and Gustavus to fight it out, Riche- 
lieu's sole object being to limit the ruling house 
of Austria. 

Gustavus now plainly saw that no reconciliation 
was possible between the Catholic League and the 
Protestant Union, if the latter could be said to 
exist. He saw that German princes desired to 
settle with him on a money basis like a hireling, 
to give him no representation for Pomerania in 
the Diet, that their envy and jealousy at his sue- 



92 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

cess was greater than their love for Protestantism, 
and that they really preferred the House of Aus- 
tria Catholic than him as a Protestant ruler, and 
that they were too jealous of each other to secure 
a Protestant Union if it were to be under the 
protection of Sweden. So in order to arrange 
with Richelieu for neutrality towards Bavaria 
he required that the League cease from all hos- 
tilities, that they call in all troops belonging to 
the League from the Emperor's army, from all 
conquered towns and from the Protestant terri- 
tory. He also insisted on the reduction of their 
army, the exclusion of the Imperial troops from 
their territory, the restoration of all property 
taken from Protestants, the concession of religious 
liberty, and the expulsion of the Jesuits. 

In order to arrange for the treaty to be fully 
considered, Gustavus had agreed for a cessation of 
hostilities for two weeks, so that Richelieu might 
induce the Elector of Bavaria to accept the condi- 
tions. But while the French commissioner was 
assuring Gustavus of the favorable progress of 
these negotiations an intercepted letter between 
the Elector and Pappenheim, the commanding 
general of the Austrian army, showed that the 
Elector had no other object in causing the delay 
than the better preparation for continued war. 
Thereupon Gustavus notified Richelieu of his 
treachery, with word that he would now invade 
Bavaria. 

When the Pope, Urban VIII. , heard of this he 
said : ' ' The King of Sweden would commit a 
great imprudence if he advanced anywhere before 
crushing Maximilian." The Catholic League was 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 93 

never able to induce this Pope to make any public 
anathemas against Gustavus, for the Pope knew 
that the Hapsburgs were striving for personal and 
family aggrandizement under the pretence of fight- 
ing for the Church. He also knew that religious 
liberty prevailed wherever Gustavus conquered. 

Gustavus' rest was interrupted by hearing that 
Tilly was ravaging Franconia, and was marching 
on Nuremberg. He hastened to meet Tilly, who 
retreated towards the Danube. 

Gustavus entered Nuremberg March 21st, 1632, 
supported by his staff and a company of cavalry. 
He left his army at Fruth, a short distance from 
the city. His generals and the Protestant princes 
whose country he had delivered rode with him 
through the streets of that ancient city. The 
magistrates offered him the keys of the city, and 
the people made a great demonstration of rejoicing. 
The ringing of the bells, the firing of many can- 
non and the welcoming shouts of the grateful peo- 
ple stirred the heart of Gustavus Adolphus so 
that he showed great emotion. His fine appear- 
ance, his pleasing personality, his cordial man- 
ners completely won the hearts of the people of 
Nuremberg. 

At his hotel he received the presents sent by the 
town. These consisted of money and two cannon 
with ammunition for his army, also two silver 
globes of the famous Nuremberg workmanship. 
The king addressed the waiting people. His 
Avords were put into a circular and sent through- 
out the country. He said : "I thank you and 
the city for these valuable presents. In return I 
can wish you nothing better than perseverance 



94 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

in the evangelical faith. May nothing turn 
you from it, neither threats nor promises nor any 
passion to which human nature is liable. You 
have given me the emblems of heaven and earth. 
May the riches of earth not make you forgetful of 
the still more precious treasures of heaven. I 
ask for you this grace of God. We have cunning, 
wicked and powerful enemies. All their thoughts 
are bent on the destruction of Protestantism. Ap- 
parently they seek peace, but peace would indeed 
prove fatal to you, to all Protestants, and ruinous 
to many millions of souls. 

"God has entrusted you with the administra- 
tion of a rich and powerful city. I do not douVjt 
of your governing it so that you need not fear the 
account which will one day be required of you be- 
fore God's tribunal. Your city, encompassed 
with dangers and persecutions, has as yet been 
miraculously preserved. I have myself been not 
less miraculously preserved since arriving in these 
countries. I had expected to see the end of the 
world rather than your city. In the misfortunes 
which have befallen your brethren, and in your 
own sufferings, God intended to make you feel 
and acknowledge what great sinners we all are. 

'■ ' It is for your sake, for the defence of the gos- 
pel, that I have left my peaceful native land and 
have come to these disturbed countries. It is for 
this cause I have sacrificed the resources of my 
poor subjects, their blood, exposed my life and 
renounced domestic happiness. I shall do all 
that the grace of God wdll give me strength to do. 
On your side, learn to suffer for a short time if it 
is necessary for our holy cause. Remain faithful 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 95 

to it. God will bless you. He will increase your 
city and make it prosperous, and your renown 
will spread everywhere. Let us together praise, 
magnify and glorify God here on earth, and in 
heaven forever." 

After dinner the king left the city amid the en- 
thusiastic admiration of the people. His pictures 
were scattered throughout the country, poems were 
written wherein he was likened to Moses, to 
Joshua, to Gideon, to David, and even to Judas 
Maccabeus, the deliverer of his nation, showing, 
at least, that the people knew well their Bible 
history. 

The signal for Gustavus to leave that part of 
the country was the sudden advance of Tilly 
against Gustavus Horn, one of the Swedish gen- 
erals. Tilly compelled General Horn to evacuate 
the bishopric of Bamburg. Gustavus pursued the 
Imperialists into Bavaria, forced the passage of the 
Danube at Donauworth, where Tilly's forces re- 
treated under a galling artillery fire from the 
Swedish batteries. The conquest of Donauworth 
made the king controller of the Danube, and only 
the small River Lech kept him from the States of 
Maximilian, who seems to have been about all 
that was left of the Catholic League. 

The Lech is usually a small stream, but the 
melting snow in the Tyrol mountains had made it 
a raging torrent. Tilly's forces were in a strongly 
fortified camp protected by this roaring current, 
so that the position was impregnable. The armies 
were within speaking distance of each other. As 
the king rode along the bank he called to the 
sentinel on the opposite side, "Good morning, 



96 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

sir. Where is old Tilly ? " " Praise God, he is 
in his quarters at Main," said the man, then 
added, "Where is the king, comrade?" "He 
is in his quarters, too, ' ' said Gustavus. ' ' What ! 
you don't mean to say he has got any quarters, 
do you?" "Oh, yes. Come over here yourself 
and you shall have excellent quarters. ' ' 

It was just that spirit of humor which endeared 
Gustavus to his polyglot army. Gustavus rode 
up and down the bank reconnoitering. He soon 
observed that the side on which his army was 
located was considerably higher than the other 
side, so he arranged three batteries with seventy- 
two field pieces, keeping up a ruinous cross fire 
on the Bavarians. While this was going on the 
king's army built a bridge across the Lech. They 
kept the Bavarians very busy on account of the 
destructive fire of the artillery, and they made 
a great smoke with wet straw and wet wood so 
that their work was concealed for some time from 
General Tilly. Gustavus fired over sixty guns 
with his own hands and seemed to be everywhere 
among his men cheering and directing them. 
General Tilly, though a much older man, would 
not leave the opposite bank of the river ; no dan- 
ger from that cross fire could drive him from his 
post, and there he was mortally wounded and 
carried from the field. The Bavarians gave way 
and the dying Tilly advised Maximilian to re- 
treat. So before a single one of Gustavus' army 
had crossed the river Maximilian broke camp 
and retreated to Neuburg and to Ingolstadt. 

When Gustavus arrived in their vacated camp 
he said, ' ' Had I been a Bavarian, though a can- 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 97 

non ball had carried away my beard and chin, 
never would I have abandoned a position like this 
and laid open my territory to my enemies. ' ' Gus- 
tavus could now have gone through Bavaria, but 
he greatly desired to relieve Augsburg, whose very 
name is dear to the Protestant world. He entered 
Augsburg on April 14th, 1632, and found every 
Protestant church closed. He found that the Edict 
of Restitution had here been enforced with great 
severity, its administration had been entrusted to 
a most bigoted Catholic, and the Protestants had 
been outraged in their feelings in the birthplace of 
their confession of faith. The King expelled the 
Bavarian soldiers and put Protestant magistrates 
in command of the city. 

Then Gustavus, his staff and leading officers, 
went to Saint Ann's Church, which with many 
others he restored to the Protestant faith. His 
chaplain. Dr. Fabricus, preached from Ps. 12 : 5 
— ' ' For the oppression of the poor, for the sigh- 
ing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. 
I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at 
him." The citizens were filled with emotion as 
they sang again the songs of Zion. Dr. Fabri- 
cus gave thanks for their great deliverance, and 
the whole congregation chanted the words of the 
psalms — "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget 
not all His benefits." "The Lord executeth right- 
eousness and judgment for all that are oppressed." 

The citizens spent several days in rejoicing, but 
Gustavus felt that he must follow up the pursuit 
of the Bavarian army, and did not stay longer to 
assist in celebrating their deliverance. 
7 



CHAPTER XI. 

GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. — CONCLUDED. 

Gustavus seemed to have had all Catholic Eu- 
rope to fight. While on the Rhine he wrote 
home : ^ ' We have unexpectedly fallen into col- 
lision with the arms of the Spaniards," who were 
in the pay of Maximilian of Bavaria and not 
that of Spain. He wonders if he shall be obliged 
to declare war against Spain. He fervently hoped 
not, as he has just heard that Richelieu is sending 
a large force of soldiers to help Austria, but he 
urges them at home to look to the sea coast, par- 
ticularly Gottenburg. At the Council of State 
held at Menz, December 31st, 1631, the king had 
said : " The king of Denmark has publicly spoken 
of the Spanish designs, and that Farensbach had 
come to Dunkirk and offered, if he could get 
ships, to take Gottenburg." The Swedish cabinet 
sent a military force for the protection of that city. 

With all these forces of Rome assailing them 
one would think the hearts of Protestants would 
beat as the heart of one man,- but selfish interests 
still divided them. The Elector of Saxony could 
not endure taking his orders from a Swedish king 
as the September treaty forced him to do. He 
could only be true to the faith when his particular 
State was in danger of being ravaged, and he now 
began again to work for a reconciliation with 
Ferdinand. 

(98) 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 99 

The German States of the second and third rank 
fully acknowledged Gustavus as their deliverer. 
They assisted with both men and money to the 
full measure of their ability, and after the death 
of the king of Sweden they did not desert the 
cause. The Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, 
the two chief States, had been forced into the war 
and did only such service as Gustavus, and dan- 
ger to their own possessions, obliged them to per- 
form. 

As one considers that last winter, a survey re- 
veals how very much had been accomplished. 
Bernard of Weimar, Christian, Palgrave of Birk- 
enfield, and the Rhinegrave, Otto Lewis, kept the 
States of the Rhine. Horn carried victorious 
arms from Franconia to the Neckar. Tott com- 
pleted the conquest of Mecklenburg, Baner was 
master at Magdeburg — what was left of it. Yet 
with all this to encourage Gustavus the real sor- 
row of the invasion was yet before them. 

Of all the curious pages of history the relations 
between Gustavus and Wallenstein is one of the 
most curious. It would seem that very soon after 
the Emperor had sent Wallenstein home, or re- 
tired him, Gustavus had been in correspondence 
with Wallenstein, hoping to obtain his services in 
the Protestant army. Oxenstiern claimed that 
the king had written Wallenstein from Stral- 
sund as early as October 30th, 1630. It is quite 
possible that the king hoped that the great gen- 
eral's anger at the Emperor could be used for the 
Protestants' benefit. 

In February, 1631, Tilly wrote the Emperor 
that he felt sure that Wallenstein had been 



100 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

tampered with by the kings of England and 
Sweden, that these kings had tried to have Wal- 
lenstein take up arms against the Emperor in 
Bohemia. " But," said Tilly, '' he thanks their 
majesties for the great honor they have done 
him, and when he sees the armies of England 
in the Palatinate he will not lose the opportunity." 

Count Thurn, the leader of the Protestant 
party in Bohemia, seems to have been the friend 
of both Gustavus and Wallenstein, and acted as 
the go-between. In June, 1631, just after the 
fall of Magdeburg, w^hen Gustavus w^as sur- 
rounded with great difficulties, Wallenstein made 
this demand as necessary to secure his services. 
Gustavus must victoriously complete a trip to 
the sea coast, ally himself wdth Saxony (which he 
did -September 1st, 1631), attack Tilly (which he 
did at Breitenfield), then send twelve thousand 
men under Count Thurn, and with this nucleus 
Wallenstein was to raise an army of fifty thou- 
sand men. To these terms Gustavus agreed, and 
promised to make Wallenstein Viceroy of Bo- 
hemia. 

At the same time Wallenstein was in secret 
correspondence with the Emperor of Austria. 
Never was there a creature of more duplicity 
than Wallenstein. He met Gustavus soon after 
the battle of Breitenfield, offered what seemed 
genuine congratulations, told Gustavus the Em- 
peror thought of reinstating him, possibly to im- 
press the king with the importance of closing 
negotiations with him. He said, "You will 
soon chase 'the Emperor out of his empire." 

Gustavus seems to have had in mind that Wal- 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 101 

lenstein (both he and the Emperor were from Bo- 
hemia), would clear Bohemia of Imperialists, 
while John George of Saxony would clear Silesia, 
and that after Gustavus himself should master 
western Germany, they would all meet with their 
triumphant armies before the walls of Vienna. 

It was a beautiful dream, but its fulfillment 
rested on a man false to every tie which binds 
man to God or to his fellow-man. But as Gus- 
tavus made his successful trip through western 
Germany he began to fear more and more that 
such an alliance would not be pleasing to God. 

Wallenstein asked for the twelve thousand 
troops. Gustavus asked delay, saying he was not 
in a position to spare that number of men. That 
Wallenstein was a traitor to his Emperor who had 
really made him all that he was, Avas a fact well 
known to the king of Sweden and made him hes- 
itate to employ Wallenstein. A traitor to one is 
not likely to be true to another. 

When Gustavus was at Nuremberg he again 
opened correspondence with this Bohemian gen- 
eral, but Wallenstein by that time had come to 
the conclusion that Gustavus was so far from his 
base of supplies, was so poorly sustained by Sax- 
ony and Brandenburg, that with an army of fifty 
thousand he could drive Gustavus home, and pos- 
sibly he had the dream (as he is charged with) 
that he could make himself Emperor, so that 
while Gustavus was at Nuremberg the correspond- 
ence closed finally, and it began to be whispered 
that Wallenstein would soon be again at the head 
of the Imperial army. 

General Tilly died of his wounds April 30th, 



102 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

1632. Gustavus had barelj^ escaped death on the 
day that Tilly was wounded. His horse was shot 
under him, and his friend, the Margrave of Baden, 
had his head carried away by a cannon ball almost 
at the same moment. As Gustavus sprang from 
the wounded horse his followers screamed, for 
they thought him killed, but, while covered with 
blood and dust, he arose from the melee, saying, 
* ' The apple is not yet ripe. ' ' After his return to 
camp, his officers attempted to offer congratula- 
tions. He replied : "The Margrave's death and 
the ball which came so close to me, recall to my 
mind my mortality. Man, thou must die, that is 
the old law from which neither my high descent, 
not my royal crown, nor my arms, nor my numer- 
ous victories can save me. I submit to God's will 
and guidance. If He removes me from this 
world, He will not forsake the holy cause which I 
now defend." 

From this time on he talked to his officers of 
what should be done in case of his death. He 
was not entranced with the glories of earth ; he 
cared nothing for fame, but he cared very much 
that he should accomplish the great work he be- 
lieved himself called upon to perform. He ex- 
pected soon to be called home to God ; therefore, 
•he was careful to show mercy wherever it was 
possible. 

Gustavus now had an army of about one hun- 
dred thousand men, this he expected to greatly 
enlarge during the coming year. He had eighteen 
thousand in his own command. Horn had twenty 
thousand on the Main ; William of Hesse had 
eight thousand kept in his own country ; Baner, 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 103 

at Magdeburg, had thirteen thousand. Tott, who 
had been called from Mecklenburg to Lower 
Saxony, had thirteen thousand, and the Dukes of 
Mecklenburg had been ordered to send four thou- 
sand more. The Saxons in Bohemia had twenty 
thousand, besides the twelve thousand engaged in 
garrison duty. The army had many languages, 
the soldiers were not homogeneous, and were, 
therefore, hard to manage. 

Wherever there was an attack, Gustavus, no 
difference how much needed where he happened 
to be, seems to have dropped everything and 
rushed to the weak point. He was the needed 
man everywhere, and with that small royal army 
he seems to have really been blown from one point 
of attack to another. In each place, in the midst of 
victory, he had to turn away to help, once Nurem- 
berg, then General Horn, then Saxony. All this 
shows that, although he had now a large arm 3^, he 
did not regard any part of it strong enough to sus- 
tain itself against the Imperial army without his 
presence. It shows how small a foundation he 
had for his hopes of delivering Germany, which 
was so unready, so divided into selfish factions, 
that unless God's hand had been as markedly 
with him as it was with Moses, Germany would 
have been forced back into the mental and spiritual 
darkness of the age preceding the Reformation. 

The occupation of Ratisbon by the Bavarians 
caused Gustavus Adolphus to decide that he would 
attack Ingdstadt, and penetrate into the center of 
Bavaria. He hoped to draw the Elector Maxi- 
milian from the Danube and strip it of its pro- 
tectors. As he was planning for this, France again 



104 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

sent a diplomat to negotiate a peace for Bavaria. 
To all the talk now concerning Maximilian's neu- 
trality, the king only laughed. He knew that 
Maximilian was all that was left of the Catholic 
League, and he replied : "I clearly see that you 
have only come to impose upon me. I cannot 
believe that the Duke of Bavaria seriously intends 
to come to a settlement of our differences. I know 
him and his priesthood too well. He wears a 
double cassock, and according to circumstances he 
turns it, to-day the red, to-morrow the blue. This 
time I shall not be deceived." The Ambassador 
ceased to cajole and began to threaten, saying that 
France was quite able to throw forty thousand 
troops into Bavaria for the help of the Elector. 

Gustavus replied : "If France withdraws her 
alliance, I shall secure that of the Turks, who are 
no worse allies than the papists, with their idol- 
atry. At all events I know that I can rely on the 
help of Almighty God, who has sent me into Ger- 
many." The plan was to keep him inactive till 
Maximilian had brought together his army. 

When Tilly died, the Emperor, Ferdinand 11. , 
was at his wits' end, and had appealed to the dis- 
graced Wallenstein to save him. Wallenstein 
made the most severe demands, to which the Em- 
peror was obliged to agree. Immediately Wallen- 
stein stamped his foot, and the robber bands of all 
Europe appeared again from Italy, from England 
and Scotland and from Poland. From every Ger- 
man State men flocked to the banner of the arch 
robber of the middle ages. 

The articles of Znaim, in which Wallenstein 
agrees to take command, are unique on the page of 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 105 

history. They were completed in April, 1632. In 
this writing the Emperor agreed that no army, ex- 
cept that mider Wallenstein, could be introduced 
into Germany. He alone possessed the power of 
confiscation and pardon. He could create a new 
class of princes to rule over States, princes who re- 
ceived and held power only under him. His 
power was purely military, but by these papers 
the Emperor practically put the power out of his 
own hands. 

Wallenstein immediately drove the Saxons from 
Bohemia, offered to revoke the Edict of Restitution 
for John George of Saxony, that weak prince who 
was now wavering between his sworn allegiance to 
Gustavus and Wallenstein. At his side now ap- 
peared an army of sixty thousand skilled troops, 
the mercenaries who were promised large pay and 
all the loot they could gather. 

Wallenstein offered John George of Saxony 
such terms of peace that Gustavus feared his ad- 
herence to the Protestant cause. Gustavus knew 
that, had Tilly offered the same to the Elector of 
Saxony, the latter would never have united his 
fortunes to those of the Protestant States. Such 
an alliance was a heart-breaking care to the king 
of Sweden. 

In spite of Richelieu's messenger, the king 
pressed on into Bavaria, a country so hostile] y 
Catholic that to kill a Protestant was considered 
by the Bavarians to be doing God a service. Gus- 
tavus had, up to this time, been welcomed even 
in the most Catholic State, because he treated the 
citizens better by far than their own army had 
done, but in Bavaria he met a different spirit. 



106 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

The priests had stirred them to great bitterness ; 
He was called by them the Antichrist, and in 
their public prayers they asked God to deliver 
them from 'Hhe Swedish devil." If a Swedish 
soldier fell into the hands of the peasants he was 
tortured and mutilated, which greatly exasperated 
the army and made it difficult for the king to keep 
his men from retaliating in kind, and, indeed, to 
keep them from laying w^aste the entire country. 

The king, by his kindness to the towns and to 
the prisoners of war, showed that his Christianity 
was superior to theirs. He never kept better dis- 
cipline in his own army than at this trying time, 
and he never failed to repay their bitterest hate by 
added kindness. At Landshut the angry passions 
were assuaged by the uniform kindness of the 
king, leading citizens came from their hiding 
places, and, throwing themselves at the king's 
feet, they begged for their own lives and for the 
protection of their towns. Gustavus answered : 
' ' When I think of the cruelties which you have 
practiced on my soldiers, I ask myself the ques- 
tion whether you are men or ferocious animals, and 
I know not how I can have compassion on you." 

He made no promises. Profound silence fell on 
the town as Gustavus and his staff rode out. He 
w^as soon overtaken by a great storm of thunder, 
lightning and rain. He took that as a personal 
message from God that he was not to be harsh in 
his dealings toward this conquered town, so he 
only assessed them to pay one hundred thousand 
dollars war expenses, which they considered a 
complete reprieve, as they had expected the burn- 
ing of the town. 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 107 

From Landshut Gustavus went to Munich. 
The capital city was greatly excited, yet knowing 
his kindness to other places, they hoped for 
clemency. Great fear prevailed, but they hoped 
by an unconditional surrender to disarm ven- 
geance. For that reason they sent messengers to 
meet him at Freysingen, and placed the keys of 
the city at his feet. 

The king replied to the deputation : ' ' You have 
done well. With justice I might have avenged 
Magdeburg on your city. But be not afraid about 
your property, your families and your religion. 
Go in peace." 

His army had suffered so much they really de- 
sired revenge and plunder in this Catholic city, 
but Gustavus kept the strictest discipline. He 
conducted the king of Bohemia, the Palatine 
Frederick, with great pomp and ceremony, into 
the very palace of the prince who had driven him 
out. At the same time he showed such forbear- 
ance toward the citizens that they paid him 
marked respect. Even the Jesuits, who had done 
so much against him, wrote to Rome praising his 
magnanimity, 

Gustavus at Munich visited the Jesuit college. 
There the Superior addressed him in Latin, prais- 
ing his eminent qualities. The king replied in 
the same language, and began an argument con- 
cerning the Lord' s Supper. He stated clearly the 
evangelical position, and showed how fully he un- 
derstood the position of Rome. His staff officers 
felt annoyed, and told him that he would serve 
his cause better by driving out the Jesuits than 
by holding learned arguments with them. Gus- 



108 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

tavus replied ''Do you not see they injure the 
cause they defend, and how useful they are to 
that which they oppose ? " 

The king found the palace at Munich had been 
robbed of its chief treasures. It was a very hand- 
some building. As he was being escorted through 
it, the king inquired, ' ' Who was the architect of 
this building ? ' ' The guide replied, ' ' No other 
than the Elector himself. " "I wish, ' ' said the 
king, "I had" this architect to send to Sweden." 
' ' That, ' ' said the guide, ' ' the architect will take 
care to prevent. ' ' 

When the arsenal was examined they found the 
gun-carriages with no cannon in sight. Gustavus 
was like Cromwell, a shrewd detective himself, 
and he had the cellars and adjoining ground ex- 
amined. He found the cannon concealed under 
the floor. The floor was partly raised up, and 
the king said : " Rise up from the dead and come 
to judgment.". One hundred and forty pieces 
obeyed the summons. 

In one of the cannon was found thirty thousand 
gold ducats, which was a great help in paying off 
his soldiers. 

Gustavus greatly admired the magnificent city, 
which he called ' ' a gold saddle on a bad horse, ' ' 
but felt that he must now push on, for he 
feared Wallenstein would throw a large part of 
his army between himself and his base of sup- 
plies. 

As soon as Wallenstein comprehended that, 
Bavaria being conquered, Gustavus would march 
to Vienna, he stirred himself. Gustavus learned 
that Wallenstein proposed to attack Nuremberg, 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. ' 109 

which had shown the Swedish king such great 
favor and kindness. 

Maximihan entreated Wallen stein to come to 
his help, and signed papers of allegiance to this 
upstart general and would-be emperor. Concern- 
ing this Wallenstein said : "At last I forced my 
mortal enemy to implore my pardon and support. 
I am avenged of all the evil he has done me." 
Wallenstein now had sixty thousand troops with 
which to attack Nuremberg, while Gustavus had 
about twenty thousand with which to oppose him. 
Gustavus could easily have avoided an engage- 
ment and left Nuremberg to the fate of Magde- 
burg. He preferred to perish with the city rather 
than expose this Protestant stronghold to the 
severities of the Imperial army. He threw up 
entrenchments outside the wall, and placed his 
soldiers outside the city, so as not to inconvenience 
the inhabitants. 

The citizens came out with shovels and picks 
and assisted the soldiers, the women came with 
good food, so that in two weeks they had an en- 
trenchment which would protect almost as well as 
a wall. In the meantime the authorities were out 
buying all the provisions possible to put the city 
in condition to stand a siege. Then the king had 
his officers organize and train the militia as to best 
methods of maintaining order, and fitting them to 
assist in protecting the city. Gustavus said : 
' ' Nuremberg is the apple of my eye, and I shall 
defend it to the best of my ability. ' ' The soldiers 
and citizens were in perfect harmony, and together 
made preparations to receive the rapidly ap- 
proaching enemy. 



110 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

Wallenstein's army did not at once attack the 
city, but went into an almost impregnable camp 
on a hill three miles away. Wallenstein said : 
' ' Hitherto enough battles have been fought, I 
shall try another method." He fully expected 
famine and pestilence to do his w^ork for him in 
that crowded, besieged city. He did not under- 
stand that they were in a degree prepared for 
siege. On his approach the country people had 
sold all farm animals to the city, or had used 
them to transport themselves and families far 
away. 

Gustavus sent out for provisions for his army 
as long as provender for man or beast could be 
had ; when these supplies could no longer be ob- 
tained, the city opened its magazines to the king, 
while Wallenstein's troops had to travel long dis- 
tances to obtain subsistence. 

Once a long train of wagons was bringing sup- 
plies for Wallenstein from Bavaria, and the king, 
learning of its approach, ' sent a regiment of cav- 
alry and intercepted the entire cavalcade. The 
escort was destroyed, twelve thousand cattle and 
a thousand wagon-loads of bread were brought to 
camp, and what could not be brought in was de- 
stroyed by fire. Wallenstein began to declare 
that a battle would have cost him less. 

The entrenchments of the Swedes now made 
an attack almost impossible, but the crowded city 
caused diseases common to the army, the inactivity 
of soldiers and men began to play havoc with 
army discipline. 

The German troops robbed their countrymen, 
and Swedish soldiers soon followed their example. 



GUSTAVUS IX GERMANY. Ill 

Gustavus remonstrated again and again with the 
German officers ; at last, on June 29th, he gave 
them a berating which they never forgot. He 
brought them together and said : ' ' Complaint 
reaches me on all sides about the conduct of our 
troops in regard to our alHes. People complain 
that the Swedes wage war like the Croats. These 
reproaches break my heart, especially since I know 
they are too true. I am innocent of all these dis- 
orders ; I have always forbidden and punished 
them severely. It is you yourselves, Germans, 
who lay waste your native country, ransack your 
fellow-citizens and drive your co-religionists, whom 
you have sworn to protect, to despair. As God is 
my judge, I abhor you ; my heart sinks within 
me, even when I look upon you. You break my 
orders, you are the cause that the world curses 
me, that the tears of poverty follow me, that com- 
plaints ring in my ears. They say, ' The king, 
our friend, does us more harm than even Wallen- 
stein, our worst enemy.' If you were true Chris- 
tians, you would fulfill your duties to your coun- 
try, to your brethren, and you would remember 
what I have done for you. It is for you that I 
have ventured my life and sacrificed my peace. 
It is for you I have depopulated Sweden, stripped 
my kingdom of its treasures, and spent upon you 
four million dollars in gold, while from your Ger- 
man empire I have not received the least aid, not 
even so much as would buy a miserable doublet. 
I ask nothing of you, and would prefer to return 
home poor and naked rather than to clothe and 
enrich myself at your expense. I gave you a 
share of all that God had given me, and had you 



112 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

regarded my orders I would gladly have shared 
with you all my future acquisitions. 

' ' Your want of discipline convinces me of your 
evil intentions, whatever cause I might otherwise 
have to applaud your bravery. If you murmur, 
if you forget God and honor so that you forsake 
me, I shall surround myself with my Swedes and 
Finns ; we shall defend ourselves to the last man, 
and the whole world shall see that being a Chris- 
tian king, I have preferred to give up my life 
rather than to defile by a crime the holy work 
which God has entrusted to me. 

"I request you, for God's sake, to commune 
with yourselves, and ask your consciences. Re- 
member, you must give an account to God of 
your conduct, and that you will appear before 
the judgment seat of the all-seeing heavenly 
Judge." 

Many were moved to tears, and promised to 
heed his words. Afterward, as the king passed 
through camp, he saw a cow before one of the 
tents. He took the young corporal before the 
court, saying: "Son, it is better I should pun- 
ish you for this than that God should punish 
me and my army and all of us together." He 
punished several officers for stealing, so that while 
the Nurembergers paid the severe price of war, yet 
the king did his best for their protection. 

But hunger continually pinched in the city and 
the camp. The one hundred and thirty-eight 
bakeries in the city could not supply the demand. 
Men fought for the bread as it came from the ovens. 
The horses died and infected the air, pestilence in 
the form of dysentery attacked both city and 



GUSTAVUS IN GERMANY. 113 

camp, so that twenty-nine thousand died, and 
graves could scarcely be found for them. 

By August 12th Oxenstiern, Baner and Duke 
Bernard, also William of Weimar, brought in 
enough men to give the king an army of seventy 
thousand men, with an addition of sixty cannon, 
and four thousand w^agons of supplies, clothing 
and ammunition, but not much food. 

Wallenstein also received reinforcements. The 
lack of food for both camps was fast rendering the 
men unfit for service, so that the king now deter- 
mined to attack Wallenstein in his stronghold. 
On August 21st, 1632, Gustavus thought he saw 
signs of Wallenstein' s retiring, and on the 22d 
he attacked Wallenstein in his trenches. For 
twelve long hours the Swedish army stormed that 
hill with unbroken courage, but with dreadful 
losses. Bernard on the right held his ground. 
Gustavus commanded the left, and at his direction 
the cannon were dragged from place to place, the 
king pointing many of them with his own hands. 
In the morning of August 23d rain began to fall. 
The Swedes had lost four thousand men. Tor- 
stenston was prisoner, Baner wounded, the king 
had the sole of his boot shot away. They had 
fought all day and all night with insufficient food, 
and the Swedes were forced to retreat. 

Nuremberg had lost over ten thousand inhab- 
itants, and Gustavus, during the siege and battle, 
had lost twenty thousand of his faithful soldiers. 
The air was putrid from the decaying flesh of men 
and animals dead under an August sun. 

On September 8th the king withdrew from 
Nuremberg, leaving a sufficient garrison under 
8 



114 GUSTAYUS ADOLPHUS II. 

Oxenstiern, and four days after Wallenstein broke 
camp and left a trail of burning towns which for 
years marked the line of his retreat. He had lost 
fifty thousand men, and now moved northward to 
prey upon Saxony. Gustavus still had the desire 
to finish his work in Bavaria, but when he heard 
that Protestant Saxony was again under the 
enemy's heel, he prepared at once to move north- 
ward. 



CHAPTER XII. 

END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 

Wallenstein' s letters would not do to use as his- 
toric authority, yet his report of the Nuremberg 
affair to his emperor probably was a fair statement 
from his point of view. He said : ' ' The king lay 
fourteen days at Furth, and now having lost 
nearly one-third of his army from hunger and dis- 
comfort, has to-day departed, whither I cannot 
learn. For military reasons I should imagine that 
he would betake himself to the Main. I mean, at 
all events, to follow him and again fix my camp 
close to him. I hear that Pappenheim is coming 
this way too, so that we shall probably enclose the 
king from both sides." . . . Later, he says : ''I 
did not follow him first, because my cavalry was 
too scattered to do so ; secondly, because he is 
sure to guard all passes in his rear ; thirdly, be- 
cause I did not wish to risk the fruits I have won. 
For I believe the king's course is already down- 
ward, that he has completely lost credit, and that 
he will be utterly done for as soon as Pappenheim 
arrives. ' ' 

As soon as Gustavus got away from the vitiated 
air around Nuremberg out into the good atmos- 
phere of the country on horseback he regained all 
lost enthusiasm, and w^as ready for the initiative, 
and he decided that only a division under Bernard 
should go to the assistance of John George of Sax- 
(115) 



116 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

ony, and he would again try for the hereditary 
lands of both the emperor and Wallenstein. That 
would keep the Elector Maximilian with his little 
army of ten thousand from being with Wallen- 
stein. Oxenstiern, who seems to have left Nurem- 
berg soon after the enemy had broken camp and 
moved northward, strongly advised a divisions- 
one reason being subsistence. The king then left 
Bernard with eight thousand men in Franconia, 
with orders to move northward in a line nearly 
parallel with Wallenstein. One division of ten 
thousand he sent to garrisons, and with not more 
then ten thousand of his choice men he again 
crossed the Danube and Lech for the purpose of 
attacking Ingolstadt. Maximilian made a great 
cry to Wallenstein to come to his assistance, but 
the general laughed at him, saying, ^'Protect 
yourself. ' ' 

Wallenstein was making for Saxony because it 
was the richest portion of the country, and he 
really hoped Maximilian would be humiliated by 
a defeat. 

General Arnin commanded the army of Saxony, 
which numbered about twenty thousand men. 
Much of the fluctuating conduct of the Electoi 
must be placed to the discredit of this Catholic 
adviser whose heart was always with the emperor 
and not with his king and country. 

Oxenstiern came up on the west bank of the 
river, and in Alsace had possessed himself of 
Strasburg, then a free imperial city. He also 
drove the Spaniards and Lorainers before him, 
and they were this time, for the most part, driven 
trom German soil. • Pappenheim and Tott were 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 117 

keeping each other occupied on the Weser, so that 
neither could help the main army to which he 
belonged, but the Swedes had the Archbishopric 
of Bremen, and Gustavus felt that it was neces- 
sary to win one great battle on account of all that 
floating element which shouts only with the win- 
ner. They must be again brought to shout for the 
Protestant side. 

Wallenstein attacked Schweinfurt after losing 
Maximilian's division. Bernard rushed to the 
defence of the city, and Wallenstein, having double 
the number of soldiers, retired. 

Then Bernard protected the passes through the 
Thuringian forests, and kept the way open for 
Gustavus and the main body of the Protestant 
army to make its way to Erfurth. 

Pappenheim was almost if not altogether as 
ruthless as Wallenstein, but morally a better man. 
The latter kept ordering the former to join him, 
but Pappenheim had so long been in independent 
command that he hated to do this. For one thing, 
the stealings would have to be reported, and, for 
another, General Tott would harass the rear of his 
army, but at length a junction of the two armies 
was made a few days before Gustavus entered Sax- 
ony, which was October 21st. 

Wallenstein, as a sort of warning of the coming 
scourge, sent Colonel Holch with the most savage 
of the Croats into Saxony, and while he wrote 
hypocritical letters to the effect that the peasantry 
should not be molested, yet the robbers knew they 
were to leave nothing behind them. 

Gustavus was again all ready for his attack on 
Ingolstadt October 8th, when a courier from Oxen- 



118 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

stiern informed him that not only Holch's regi- 
ment, but Wallenstein' s main army, twenty 
thousand strong, had crossed into Saxony on 
October 5th. He decided at once to call in all 
divisions of his army and to concentrate at Er- 
furth. On the 12th he was joined by Oxenstiern 
and Knipenhausen. As they marched through 
those great forests he kept his friend and chancel- 
lor much by his side. He talked over with Oxen- 
stiern what should be the terms of peace, when it 
could be made, and distinctly told him that in 
the case of the death of his king he, as chancel- 
lor, must bring the war sooner or later to a suc- 
cessful close. Also he talked of the government 
at home, of his wife, but most of all of the little 
maid upon whom the sorrow of ruling an impov- 
erished kingdom would fall, should be lose his 
life. 

On October 28th the army was at Erfurth, hav- 
ing marched from Bavaria in eighteen days. 
Wallenstein declared, "To do that they must 
have flown." 

As Gustavus came through the country he re- 
ceived the most enthusiastic welcome. His 
soldiers were generously fed and lodged, they 
held prayers night and morning with their hosts, 
and while the people thanked them for coming, 
the soldiers thanked the people for their kindness 
and hospitality. It was John George who was 
vacillating, not his people, they were always true 
to the evangelical faith. 

Gustavus rode at the head of his army on a 
large white horse, he wore a plain gray suit, a 
gray hat on which was a large white feather. 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 119 

This was the only distinguishing mark of rank in 
his costume. All soldiers and sailors are more or 
less superstitious. An incident which the army 
took as a good omen occurred as they passed the 
Thuringian forest. The king saw a hawk pursu- 
ing a lark, which flew into the bosom of the king, 
who took the trembling bird in his hands, hold- 
ing it till the hawk was out of sight, then he 
said, " Go, poor little bird, may God protect you." 
The army took this to mean that Austria was 
the bird of prey, and that Protestantism had 
thrown itself into the arms of the king of Sweden 
for protection, and the privilege would be given 
him of God to set it free. 

On October 23d the different divisions of his 
army met in Arnstadt. Here he and his best 
loved friend, Chancellor Oxenstiern, parted to 
meet no more on this earth. At Erfurth he met 
his queen, who was waiting for him. He had but 
little time to talk with her of the home land, or of 
the little maid upon whom their love was lav- 
ished. Wallenstein was not far away, so, on the 
28th, he called the town council of Erfurth to- 
gether, and addressing them in cheir own language, 
he said : 

'' I intrust you with my most precious jewel, 
the queen, mj^ well beloved wife. You know, 
gentlemen, that all things are subject to vicissi- 
tudes, and above all war, a scourge which God 
uses to chastise men for their sins. Like another, 
I may meet with misfortune, perhaps death. If 
that is the will of God, show to my beloved wife 
the loyalty, the devotion, of which you have 
always given me proof." 



120 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

The queen broke out into weeping. He clasped 
her in his arms, saying, ' ' Cheer up ! We shall 
see each other again, if not in this life, it will be 
sooner or later in the celestial abodes of eternal 
bliss." 

Then, holding her in his arms a moment in 
silence (doubtless in prayer), he sprang on his 
horse, rode to the head of his moving army, and 
kept that place till he reached Naumburg, Novem- 
ber 1st, 1632, before the division which Wallen- 
stein had hastened toward that town could arrive. 

The king strongly entrenched himself here, and 
placed three hundred cannon to overlook the ap- 
proaches. The inhabitants fell on their knees be- 
fore him. He cried out : ' ' Oh, think not of me ; 
think only of the cause ! God will punish me if 
I accept such homage from you. Yet, I hope 
that He who knows that I take no delight in such 
honor will not suffer my work to fail, whatever 
becomes of me, seeing it is for the glory of His 
Holy Name." 

Wallenstein was preparing to march on Dres- 
den when he learned that Gustavus was ready to 
leave Erfurth, so he determined to throw one 
corps into Naumburg, and to entrench himself at 
Weisenfels, about ten miles from Naumburg. 
Wallenstein expected the Swedes would now go 
into winter quarters, and make no further advance 
or attack until the warmer weather of Spring 
should come. 

The first days of November were exceedingly 
cold, and Gustavus had his men on the outside of 
Naumburg brought in for shelter, comfort and 
food. All this made Wallenstein think that the 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 121 

king was really hibernating. So Wallenstein per- 
mitted Pappenheim to march away again to the 
Weser and Towerkline, where General Bandissin, 
with a regiment of Swedes, kept guard for the 
king. Pappenheim took with him eight thousand 
men in order to take Halle on the way. Wallen- 
stein had twenty-five thousand men left, and he 
silently made his way toward Lutzen. 

The king called his two generals to him to con- 
sult. "Fight," said Bernard. "Wait," said 
Knipenhausen, "till the Saxon army can join 
us." The king knew Saxony too well for that, 
but he wrote to John George to bring in his forces 
at once. The duke replied : "I am deepl}^ sensi- 
ble of the importance of the occasion, and I will 
at once send two regiments to join you ; the rest 
I need for the maintenance of my own fortresses." 

Fifteen hundred men to help the man who was 
imperiling his life, his army, his country, to save 
Saxony ! But before the elector had sent that 
letter, before the fifteen hundred men had left 
the Saxon camp, the fatal battle had been fought 
at Lutzen, and the sun had seen the noblest life 
of that century go out on the field of battle. 

On the evening after the council the king heard 
that Pappenheim had been sent away ; this seems 
to have decided him. He said : " I believe, in- 
deed, that God has delivered the enemy into my 
hand," and, suddenly breaking camp at Naum- 
burg, he hastened to meet Wallenstein, whose 
army was weakened by the loss of Pappenheim. 
For Gustavus to wait for the Saxons would also 
be waiting for the return of Pappenheim. 

The spies soon told Wallenstein that the king's 



122 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 11. 

army was on the move, and AVallenstein wrote a 
frantic letter to Pappenheim. He said : ' ' The 
enemy is advancing. Sir, let everything else be, 
and hurry with all your forces and artillery back 
to me. You must be here by to-morrow morning 
— he is already over the pass." This letter, all 
stained with blood, is yet to be seen at the museum 
in Vienna. Pappenheim carried it into the battle 
in which he lost his life. 

Lutzen is located on a plain over which ran 
great ditches or canals (which could be waded) 
for irrigating purposes. Gustavus came up to the 
enemy on the evening of November 5th, too late, 
on account of the rugged ground, to make the 
attack. Most writers affirm that could the battle 
have taken place on the 5th, before the return of 
Pappenheim, Gustavus would, no doubt, have 
secured a great victory. It was late that night 
before Wallenstein could bring his regiments to- 
gether. They fell into line of battle just as they 
came in. 

Gustavus had eighteen thousand men, Wallen- 
stein twenty-five thousand, and was momentarily 
expecting Pappenheim with troops variously esti- 
mated at from eight to ten thousand men. The 
king, with Bernard and Knipenhausen, slept from 
time to time through the night in the king's day 
coach. The two armies, that bitter cold night, 
faced each other, lying down to sleep in the order 
they had marched, with their arms and equipment 
within easy reach. 

Then the fateful morning of November 6th 
arrived. It proved to be foggy and very dark. 
The king sent for his chaplain and they spent an 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 123 

hour in prayer. Divine services were held, as 
usual, in camp. The whole arm}^ each in his 
own language, sang Luther's battle hymn, " Ein 
f este Burg is unser Gott, " ^ ' A mighty fortress is our 
God. ' ' The words in the second stanza, ' ' ' Tis Jesus 
Christ," which are the words answering the ques- 
tion, "Askest thou His name?" were usually 
accompanied with a salute of artillery, that was 
omitted on this occasion. Then the king himself 
sang : 

" Fear not, O little flock, the foe, 
Who madly seek your overthrow, 
Dread not his rage and power," etc. 

A hymn composed by himself, a hymn which had 
been sung by his loving people on the last convo- 
cation in the palace at Stockholm for his encour- 
agement ; now he sang it for theirs.* 

Since his wound at Dirschan he had not used 
armor. When his page brought his accoutre- 
ments that morning, he said, "God is my har- 
ness." He mounted his horse without taking 
any refreshments. He rode along the entire army, 
saluting and cheering his officers. When he came 
to the Swedes and Finns, he said : ' ' Dear friends 
and countrymen, this day the moment is come to 
show what you have learned in so many combats. 
There is the foe, not on a mountain, not behind 
walls, but on a clear field. How this enemy hath 
heretofore shunned the open field ye well know, 
and that he lets it now come to battle proceeds 
not from his free will, nor from hope of victory, 

*I have used Geijer's "History of the Swedes" as authority as to 
what occurred that dreadful day — November 6th, 1632. 



124 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

but because be can no longer escape your arms. 
Therefore, make yourselves ready, and hold you 
well as becomes brave soldiers ; stand fast by one 
another, and fight like true knights, for your God, 
for your Fatherland, and for your king. I will 
then so reward you all that you may have cause 
to thank me for it ; but if you fight not, not a 
bone of you shall ever come to Sweden. God 
preserve you all." 

To the Germans he said : ' ' You, my sincere 
brothers and comrades, I pra}^ and exhort by your 
Christian conscience and your own honor, now do 
your duty, as you have done the same with me 
often before, and especiall}^ a year ago not far 
from this place. Then you beat old Tilly and his 
army, and I hope that this enemy shall not slip 
for a better bargain. Go freshly to it. Ye shall 
not merely fight under me, but with me and be- 
side me. I myself will go before you, and here 
venture life and blood. If j^ou will follow me, I 
trust in God that you will win a victory which 
shall come to good for you and for your descend- 
ants. If not, there is an end of your religion, 
your freedom, your temporal and eternal welfare." 

Wallenstein was carried to the army in a litter, 
as he could not stand on his feet from the gout. 
He made no remarks to his troops ; none were 
needed. They knew he would reward them in 
case of victory, and cruelly punish if they failed. 

The fog lay heavy on the field, and did not 
begin to lift until nearly noon. The watchAvord 
of the Swedes was, "God with us," while the 
Imperial forces had the words, ''Jesus, Mary." 
After Gustavus' stirring speeches, all the army 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 125 

answered with a clash of arms and joyous cheers. 
The king looked up to heaven, ' ' Now will we in 
God's name onward ! Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, may we 
fight to-day for the honor of Thy Holy Name ! " 
He waved his sword over his head, gave the com- 
mand, " Forward ! " 

The Swedes could see that the town of Lutzen 
was burning, having been set on fire by the Im- 
perial troops at the duke's command, to prevent 
his troops from being flanked on that side, also to 
take the heart out of all local troops in the Prot- 
estant army. The Swedes sustained the onerous 
attack, facing a battery with undaunted courage. 
They passed those terrible trenches with their ice- 
cold water and carried and turned a battery 
against their adversaries. The first five Imperial 
brigades were immediately routed, the second 
soon after, and the third put to flight. Just then 
Wallenstein came in person with fresh troops upon 
the broken ranks of the Swedes, the fighting was 
hand to hand, leaving no room to reload, the guns 
were clubbed, or used as pikes, the Swedes were 
driven back, the battery recaptured and turned 
upon them, then in retreat they had again to wade 
those awful irrigating canals. A thousand of the 
Protestant army lay dead, and not a foot gained. 
In the meantime the king commanded the right 
wing, which fell upon the enemy's left. 

The Finnish cuirassiers dispersed the Poles and 
Croats, who fled, throwing the cavalry into panic 
and causing death and confusion to the enemy. 
At this moment word was brought to the king of 
the disaster to his left wing, which was even 
then retreating across those terrible ditches. 



126 GUSTAVUS ADOI>PHUS II. 

He called General Horn to take his command 
and repaired with a splendid regiment to the sup- 
port of the left wing. His good horse sprang over 
every ditch just as he came to it, his regiment 
could not keep up with him, and only a few of his 
staff kept at his side, among them Francis Albert, 
Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. He rode to where his 
infantry were most pressed, and while he was 
reconnoitering for the point of attack his near- 
sightedness led him too close to the enemy's line. 
An Imperial corporal noticing that in every place 
people gave way for him, called to a sharp- 
shooter, ' ' That is a man of consequence, fire at 
him ! " The soldier fired and the left arm of the 
king was shattered. At that moment his regi- 
ment arrived and a cry of anguish went up, ''Our 
king is shot! The king bleeds!" "Oh, it is 
nothing," shouted the king, "follow me." He 
led a short way, then realizing that he would fall, 
he said in French to the Duke of Lauenburg, 
' ' Lead my horse, take me out of the battle. I 
faint." The duke tried to do this by retir- 
ing by the right wing in order to keep this 
discouraging sight from the infantry. The king 
was wounded again, this time through the back. 
He said, ' ' Brother, I have enough ! Look now 
to your own life. " At this moment he fell from 
his horse, which dragged him some distance, liter- 
ally riddled with shots, and, in some unexplain- 
able way, he was separated from all his attendants 
except his faithful young page, Lenbelfingen, who 
was run through the body by a sword thrust. 

The king's last audible words were : "I am the 
king of Sweden. I seal this day with my blood 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE, 127 

the liberty and religion of the German nation." 
And that heroic soul ascended to God. 

The page, a boy of eighteen, lived long enough 
to tell the particulars of that sad story. His father 
took down his words at his dying bedside. It is 
the only authentic testimony of the " crucial half 
hour of that awful battle. 

The field chaplain of Duke Bernard says in a 
letter to a friend : " By a first pistol shot Gus- 
tavus was wounded in the arm so that the bone 
stuck out through the coat. By another ball, 
which he received in the back below^ the right 
shoulder, he was thrown from his horse and fell 
dying. We should not even know the circum- 
stances if we had not them from a young page 
who served the monarch." 

Word of this awful disaster reached Bernard, 
Duke of Weimar, who immediately sent the word 
to General Knipenhausen, w^ho prepared in some 
measure for orders to retreat. But Bernard 
shouted, '' Now for revenge ! Victor}^ or death ! " 
and Knipenhausen' s division took new heart and 
sprang into the fight. 

The death of the commander usually means 
defeat, but these gallant Swedes and Germans 
made it mean splendid victory. They were so 
enraged by the king's death that the Imperial 
army was literally stampeded, beaten, routed, 
driven from the field. 

Pappenheim had received Wallenstein's letter 
at Halle, and without waiting to get his infantrj^ 
together, he took eight regiments of cavalry and 
literally galloped to Lutzen, stopping only under 
necessit3^ 



128 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 11. 



4 

iter I 



Pappenheim hoped for a personal encounter 
with Gustavus and pressed far into the midst of 
the fight, where he was struck by two musket 
balls and carried from the field. He was a great 
cavalry leader, and with his death success deserted 
the Imperial arms. The army of Wallenstein, 
what was left of it, retreated toward Leipzig, leav- 
ing the Swedish army in possession of the battle- 
field. More than nine thousand men lay dead on 
the field, and historians say of the Imperial army 
scarcely a man escaped from that field uninjured. 
The entire plain of Lutzen was strewn with men 
dead, dying, starving, freezing, wounded unto 
death. 

Pappenheim died at Leipzig the day after the 
battle. When he fell his troops gave up the fight. 
He sent a message to Wallenstein: ''I die with 
joy, because Gustavus, the enemy of my faith, 
dies with me." 

Wallenstein' s rage was something fearful. All 
his officers who had fled from the field were be- 
headed the next day at his command. He con- 
cluded Saxony's wealth would not justify the risk 
of remaining on its soil, and the victors took pos- 
session of all strongholds which had been occupied 
by Austrians. Wallenstein' s defeat was complete, 
and the Emperor Ferdinand, and all the world, 
knew that chains could never again shackle north- 
ern Europe. It was a victory, but the Protestant 
army had paid a fearful price. 

As the men returned to camp after the great 
battle, the loved king came not to welcome and 
thank them. After a long search the body of the 
king was found with the common crowd of dead 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 129 

on the battle field. The body had been stripped 
not only of its ornaments but of clothing by the 
plunderers, who at that time were in the wake of 
every battle. That beautiful body was covered 
with blood and wounds and had been trampled 
down by horses, so that it was scarcely recog- 
nizable. 

A funeral service was conducted in the little 
local church over the body (which had been placed 
in a plain coffin) by a schoolmaster, and a Swedish 
officer made a short oration, in which he set forth 
the Christian character, the high aims, of this 
divinely-led king, whom Weber calls ' ' the purest 
character of that deeply agitated time, ' ' that great 
king of a brave people, whom history rightly 
names Gustavus the Great. 

The next day the mortal body was taken to 
Weissenfels, where a druggist named Kasparins 
embalmed it. He found nine wounds. After 
this the remains were given to his queen and his 
soldiers. The sorrow seemed overwhelming, and 
the generals were simply stupefied by grief and by 
the magnitude of their loss. 

The body was sacredly kept in a church till the 
following summer, when it was sent from Saxony 
to Sweden. As the procession passed through the 
country with the hero's body, accompanied by 
his queen and a committee from the Estates of 
Sweden, every possible honor was paid to the 
dead king. After a fairly prosperous voyage the 
fleet arrived, August 8th, at Nykjoeping amid the 
clash of a great rain and thunder-storm. The last, 
a salute from heaven's artillery, and the rain an 
emblem of the tears of a nation. 



130 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

The queen insisted on keeping the heart with 
her in a golden case, but after the clergy had 
reasoned with her, not till June 21st, 1634, was 
his body laid in the old Ridderholm church, which 
Gustavus had himself chosen for his last earthly 
resting place. A beautiful mausoleum covers his 
grave. On the different sides of this monument 
short sentences concerning his character and his 
achievements are engraved. Beneath the cross at 
the top a pelican feeding its young with its own 
blood fitly represents this life with its bloody self- 
devotion to its religion and country. It is con- 
stantly covered with the flag of Sweden, and few 
travelers enter the church without placing a 
funeral wreath over Sweden's immortal dead. 

Now, what good came of all this sorrow, in 
which a great country was laid waste, and more 
than twelve million people perished ? Protestant- 
ism was rescued from extinction on the continent 
of Europe. A limit was put to the aggressions of 
Austria. Since the Thirty Years' War religious 
toleration has been the boast of Protestant Ger- 
many. The awful loss of life would seem to show 
the value God places on the rights of the common 
people, in contrast with material prosperity. The 
spiritual assets of individuals and nations seem 
to abide, while their material assets are perishable. 

But for this war no such State as modern Ger- 
many would now exist, and northern Europe, not 
only Saxony, Brandenburg and Hanover, but 
Denmark, Sweden and Norway would have been 
swept into the Holy Roman Empire, and their 
intellects paralyzed by Romanism, as in Italy, 
Spain and Portugal. 



END OF A VALUABLE LIFE. 131 

It was not alone the weeping Swedes who be- 
wailed Gustavus' early death at the age of thirty- 
eight years, but his prowess made Greece long for 
liberty, prayers were offered for him at the Holy 
Sepulchre. The Pope said : ' ^ Gustavus was the 
greatest king in the world. ' ' Wallenstein paid him 
homage in saying : " It is well for him and me 
that he is gone. The German Empire does not 
require two such leaders." 

He was a man of sincere faith, which God gra- 
ciously honored. He was a just man, always 
kind, even to tenderness, and withal he was a 
military genius. He transformed the science of 
war, making the man behind the gun mean more 
than the gun. He caused flexibility of movement 
to take the place of large massing of men. He 
was a severe disciplinarian, but he tried to have 
the obedience of the soldier to come from within, 
obeying the outward voice as the voice of God, 
country and king. He often said : ' ' One can be 
a bold combatant but not a good soldier without 
being a Christian." 

In our age, so materialistic, so mercenary, that 
sees all too little of the heroic along religious lines, 
it comes like a breath from heaven to contemplate 
such a life, such a service, such a death as that of 
Gustavus the Great. 

He possessed that peculiar faculty of greatness, 
the distinct perception of a distant goal, and an 
unfaltering determination to reach it. In general- 
ship he was superior to Wallenstein, the greatest 
Imperial commander of that century. In diplo- 
macy and statesmanship he excelled Richelieu. 
He dared to follow the vision. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



After the death of Gustavus the Great, Chan- 
cellor Oxenstiern became commander-in-chief ; he 
was also chosen chief of the League of the Prot- 
estant Princes against Austria. Oxenstiern was 
as earnest as Gustavus, but the great genius and 
experience of the Christian soldier, the large wis- 
dom and sincere honesty of the great king were 
all missing, and made the remainder of the war 
only a bloody record, with little of the heroic, 
except the heroism of a steadfast standing to an 
unpleasant delegated duty. 

Wallenstein soon recruited a new army, but he 
now began to be distrusted by both sides.* He 
failed to carry out the Edict of Restitution. He 
appointed Protestants to good positions in the 
army. 

Proofs yet exist that he was negotiating with 
Oxenstiern. Count Schlick openly said : ' ' Wal- 
lenstein is playing a double game." He received 
a messenger from Richelieu. He was aiming first 
for the crown of Bohemia, and it is believed that 
his astrologers had told him that the stars pro- 
claimed he would yet be Emperor of Germany. 
Ferdinand had long watched him through spies, 
but Wallenstein, surrounded by his great generals, 
was not easy to take in case he should not choose 

* Read Schiller's "Drama of Wallenstein." 

(132) 



LATER HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 133 

to submit to arrest. Wallenstein had entered into 
a bond of friendship with about thirty of his offi- 
cers, who promised to be faithful unto death to 
him, but even while the astrologer was telling him 
of coming triumph, an Imperial proclamation de- 
clared that Wallenstein had been found guilty of 
treasonable conspiracy, dismissed from the service 
and his officers forbidden to take any orders what- 
ever from him. 

Wallenstein went to the strong fortress of Eyer 
in Bohemia, followed by a good-sized army. Here 
he hoped to maintain himself till he could close 
negotiations with the Duke of Weimar, with the 
Swedes and with Richelieu, and carry his army to 
the other side. But the Emperor was prepared 
before he made the proclamation. 

Only four of the thirty officers remained true to 
him ; in spite of their written oaths of allegiance 
that they would sacrifice their estates and shed 
their heart' s blood for him. The Emperor offered a 
reward for him dead or alive. These false friends 
proposed a great banquet in his honor. The ban- 
quet lasted late into the night, while they drank 
to the general's health and toasted him in fair 
speech. Suddenly a company of ruffians burst 
into the hall, and, with the assistance of the 
traitors, the four friends of Wallenstein were assas- 
sinated. The general had retired to rest, not 
being well. Hearing the confusion he rose, dressed 
and prepared for the worst. Suddenly the tramp 
of many feet were heard, the door was burst open, 
and Devereau, at the head of thirty men, cried : 
' * Are you the villain who would betray our Em- 
peror ? ' ' Wallenstein, like a brave man, opened 



134 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

his arms wide, receiving in the breast his mortal 
wound. 

His vast property was confiscated and divided 
among his betrayers, all of whom received offices, 
honors and wealth. Twenty-four lower officers 
who were his friends fled, but were captured and 
beheaded at Pilsen. He had a strong personal 
following. His soldiers laughed at being known 
as Protestant, Catholic, German or foreigners ; 
they declared they were Wallensteiners. He cared 
for neither friend nor foe, but led his robber band 
from State to State till it was laid waste, then 
moved on to the next, leaving devastation in his 
wake. 

The fifth and last period of the war was now 
entered upon, known as the French-Swedish War. 
Richelieu made the Rhine the frontier of France, 
and concluded an open alliance with Sweden. 

Ferdinand II. now died, after having made his 
son Roman king. This greatly angered Duke 
Maximilian, Richelieu and Pope Urban VIII., 
who had other plans for that throne. Ferdinand 
died unmourned, after causing as great sorrow as 
any human being who ever lived. During the 
remaining eleven years before the Peace of West- 
phalia in 1648, Ferdinand III. would gladly have 
made peace, but Germany was so defenceless that 
she was simply in the hands of France and Sweden, 
one contending for, the other against the Edict of 
Restitution, but the awful story of rapine, murder, 
pestilence and death of those eleven years need 
not be told here. (See Schiller's " Thirty Years' 
War.") 

What was Christian Germany doing all this 



185 

time? It kept the faith ; it sought consolation in 
God's word ; it wrote the deep spiritual hymns of 
the Church, hymns which have comforted the sor- 
rowing from that day to this. 

The negotiations for peace extended over four 
years. While diplomats in comfortable rooms were 
bickering over terms, armies were fighting, sol- 
diers dying, people starving, and utter misery pre- 
vaihng. The parties who had to subscribe to the 
peace were France, Sweden, the Emperor, the 
various German States and princes, Frederick 
William, who afterward became known as the 
great Elector of Brandenburg, Denmark, Venice, 
Spain, Switzerland, England and the Netherlands. 
Sweden did not receive Pomerania, which she de- 
manded, but secured Western Pomerania, with 
Rugen Stettin and a few other places, and an in- 
demnity of five million thalers. But what was 
that to her loss ? 

The Treaty of Westphalia, in 1648, declared 
that the treaties of Passau and Augsburg were 
confirmed. The Edict of Restitution was can- 
celed. The great Supreme Court of the Empire 
was to be half Protestant and half Catholic. It 
legalized the break which had been made by 
Luther and the other reformers. It gave liberty 
of conscience to the Protestant part of Europe. 

Against the Treaty of Westphalia the Pope of 
Rome made an earnest protest that does not at 
this distance of time and place seem important. 
This protest, however, was the pontifical declar- 
ation that in spite of the treaty of Augsburg, 
Rome had never abandoned and never intends to 
abandon the claim made by Gregory VIII., Inno- 



136 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

cent III., Bonifacius VIII. and their successors, 
that the Pope of Rome is the supreme and exclu- 
sive source of all ecclesiastical and political author- 
ity in all the world. 

All the wars, murders, intrigues, massacres and 
apparent victories of Charles V., Ferdinand II., 
of Philip II. of Spain, of Alva in the Nether- 
lands, the half Roman policy of Charles I. of 
England, came to dire judgment in the Peace of 
Westphalia, and Catholic and Protestant learned 
the deep lesson of religious toleration. 

It took Luther, Calvin, Knox, Latimer, Ridley, 
Cranmer, Gustavus Adolphus and Cromwell, the 
Huguenots of France, and all God's faithful plain 
people of many nations to bring about the reli- 
gious toleration we now enjoy. 

Sweden practically saved religious liberty to the 
world. So far this has been her greatest contri- 
bution to history. Protestantism everywhere 
means liberty of conscience, Romanism every- 
where means absoluteism. 

Chancellor Oxenstiern, next to Gustavus, de- 
serves the honors of that war. By his great states- 
manship and unfaltering dignity he secured re- 
ligious toleration, which was the chief thing fought 
for, and secured a fair share of land and money 
for his impoverished country. 

When the Thirty Years' War ended, not one of 
the great men who began it was alive. Emperor 
Ferdinand II., King Christian II., Gustavus the 
Great, Wallenstein, Tilly, Pappenheim, James I. 
of England, and Richelieu, had all gone to give 
an account of the deeds done in the body. For 
a whole century the remains of burned and ruined 



137 

towns, villages and desolated homes and farms 
marked the sorrows of the cruelest long war of 
history. 

In the Peace of Westphalia, 1648, ecclesiastical 
property was determined by possession in 1624 
(six years after the war began), and liberty of 
conscience granted to the Protestants, This 
treaty was decided by France and Sweden, and in 
many respects it bore hard on Germany. It was 
from rights granted in this treaty that Lonis XIV. 
treated Germany as a vassal province, and that 
Napoleon I. brought the Empire to a close.* The 
House of Hapsburg began to see the necessity of 
changing the title of Emperor of Austria, though 
it kept the shell without the soul for one hundred 
and forty years after the Peace of Westphaha. 
There was a growing expectation that the young 
Elector of Bradenburg might become the real ruler 
of northern Germany. 

Oxenstiern, supported by a cabinet, ruled over 
Sweden tiU Christina, the daughter of Gustavus, in 
her eighteenth year, became Queen of Sweden. 
This mannish queen was jealous of the fame of 
the old Chancellor, and dishonored herself by dis- 
honoring him. It is quite possible that she was 
slightly insane. She scattered the crown prop- 
erty, gave costly gifts to unworthy people, and at 
last she was in a measure forced to abdicate in 
favor of her cousin, one of the Vasa family. 
Having lost the love and respect of her subjects, 
she soon left Sweden in masculine attire under 
the name of Count Dohna. She first went to 
Brussels, and later to Italy. It had been known 

* In the year 1800, Francis I. took the title Emperor of Austria. 



138 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS II. 

for some time that she was greatly influenced by 
the Spanish minister at her court, and at Inspruck 
she openly joined the Roman Church, and was 
rechristened Alexandria. 

She made her way to Rome, was well received 
at the Vatican by the Pope. In time she began 
to regret her course, and in 1666 and again in 
1667 she returned to Sweden in the vain hope of 
regaining her crown. In 1668 she laid claim to 
the crown of Poland. Returning to Rome, she 
died in 1689, old, poor, neglected, at the age of 
sixty-three, and was buried in St. Peter's Cathe- 
dral. 

Christian was succeeded by CJiarles X. of Swe- 
den.* He proved to be a good ruler. The family 
of Vasa remained on the Swedish throne till 1810, 
when the Vasa family, having no suitable heirs, 
the throne was offered to Field Marshal Berna- 
dotte, a famous general under Napoleon I. , whose 
favor was supposed to be secured by this act. 
Bernadotte became a Lutheran under the title of 
Charles John, sometimes spoken of as Charles 
XIV. In 1814 Norway entered into a union with 
Sweden which continued until 1905. 

Charles XI. was succeeded by his son (in 1844), 
known as Oscar I., who lived until 1859, when 
the Crown Prince Charles, who, on account of the 
bad health of the king, had been acting as regent, 
now became king of the two countries under the 
name of Charles XV. ; he was succeeded by his 
brother, the honored Oscar II., September 18th, 
1872, and ruled till December 8th, 1907. 

* Charles X. was son of John Cassimer, of Palatinate Zwerbrucken, 
and Catherine, granddaughter of Gustavus I. 



139 

It is not too much to say that Oscar II. was the 
best loved monarch of his generation. It fell to 
his fate to assent to the loss of his Norwegian 
crown, but the magnanimous manner in which he 
did this gained more world-wide admiration than 
most rulers acquire by conquering an empire. 

It is interesting to know that the only scion of 
royalty of the Napoleon dynasty now on a throne 
is the King of Sweden, through the family of 
poor, deeply wounded Josephine. Eugene de 
Beauharnaise, son of Josephine, married Augusta 
of Bavaria, their daughter became the wife of 
Oscar I., whose grandson, Gustavus V., who came 
to the throne December 8th, 1907, now most ably 
rules over the Swedish people. 

Scandinavia has produced great men in every 
walk of life, but the proudest name that portion 
of the world has yet inscribed among the Imper- 
ishables is that of 

Gustavus the Great. 



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